Escaping the Templars
by MissNerdyGirl
Summary: Melanie Cortado doesn't believe in love or the chance of escaping the Templars while still breathing, but as she enters the Animus and lives as Ofelia de Luca, a renaissance courtesan she starts to hope that everything can change. The Question is: How?
1. Greeting

Ok Everybody, so this is my first fanfiction that I will let people read, so please don't judge this too hard, lol. Uhmmm I just wanted to let you all know that I'm from Sweden so my English isn't the greatest, so if you find any misspellings or you simply can't understand what I've written, please inform me about it. Other than that I'll hope you'll like it!  
>Oh and I've also mixed in my own fantasy in all of this (other than characters) so some things aren't exactly correct to the things you may know about for example the animus sessions, Abstergo and the leading Templars at Abstergo.<p>

So anyway here is the first chapter, hope you will like it!

Greetings, or should I perhaps say: Salute.

My name is Melanie, Melanie Cortado, relative to Miguel Cortado, one of the first assassins who came into this world after our kind, were greeted by those who came before us.

I decided to change my name as soon as I found out the meaning of that name. 

My family trees roots clings deeply in to the history of our kind, in every important aspect in this world that you may have read about in school, my ancestors have been there, and witnessed or caused it all.

Like many others of my ancestors, I've come to the terms that my abilities such as eagle vision and incredible precision with a blade and any other weaponry in this world, reaches further than to what is referred to as normal.

And ever since I found out about them, I knew I had to use them for something.

That's why I'm sitting here, writing all of this to you while I still can.

I'm at the headquarters for Templars in training, and I feel that I no longer belong in this place.

For sixteen years now, I have lived with these people who call themselves my family.

They have referred to me as the child "With a purpose".

They tell me everything happens for a reason, that it wasn't a coincidence that they found me after the death of my parents and the burn down of the orphan home, by reasons still unknown.

If only they knew the way I hated them so.

I knew it wasn't a coincidence that they found me, they wouldn't have bothered taking me home, when they saw me alone walking in an alley behind an old bar near the ruins of the orphan house, if they hadn't known that I would be of use.

They found me when I was four, and already then the training began to make me useful.

And I really had been, of use I mean, there was nothing I couldn't do, no place that I couldn't go to.

And nothing that I couldn't reveal to them about my ancestors.

And all because of how big and spread out my family have been through the centuries.

I've relived the life of a young man, living as a prince in what used to be a small country where Russia now is. I've lived as a courtesan whose husband deeply believed in the creed of the assassins.

And I have lived as a young child, witnessing together with his siblings how their parents were killed by their own kind.

My ancestor did the unthinkable thing, a member of the creed, turned to marry a young girl of Templar family.

Later on they both got hunted down and killed for betrayal of their beliefs, but not before they had children.

One of the assassins, sent out with the command of assassinating my ancestor who turned on the creed, believed highly in one of the three rules of the brotherhood: stay your blade from the flesh of innocent.

Luckily for my ancestors, he was the man who found their children after the Templars already had killed the man and the woman all though it wasn't in their hands to kill a man from another belief.

The man found the children crying and hiding inside of the barn and the oldest of the three was merely able to talk but still he started begging for mercy.

And so the assassin raised them as they were his own, but in hiding.

Later on, the children grew up with a clear mind, and were fully determined to seek revenge upon those who killed their parents, but that is a whole other story.

The thing is, that when this assassin raised my ancestors, he told them about the Brotherhood and the Templars, he made them able to choose which path they wanted to go, but they never hesitated on becoming assassins, it was their calling.

And so the Templars aren't just keeping me because of my roots in a family tree of Templars, but also of Assassins.

And just as my ancestors, I want no part of what the Templars are planning or doing, I get sick by the thought of how they killed my ancestors without blinking, and I will never forget the many ways of deaths my ancestors have gone through.

Because unlike you, I can not only read about what they went through, I can relive it.

I can be inside of their bodies, hear their minds yet not control them, I still collect them inside of my mind.

I have relived many of the lives that Templars have ended, but this time I won't do it no more.

All of us here at the headquarter gets a mission every month at the least, depending on how long it takes for us to relive the special memories that the Templars want us to collect.

Because the Templars can't reveal what our ancestors knew, sure they can relive the lives of their owns, but their ancestors never were in action, they were just dealing out orders and hiding behind their important names, they were never truly aware of what happened between the Templars and the Assassins.

So it is up to _us_, the living proof of a Creed no one out in the community even knows exists, to find out what the assassins planned on doing by setting so many things in motion throughout the centuries.

And it is up to _us _to find the lost answers to so many questions that the Assassins lived for to reveal and Templars found out about, but never lived long enough to tell the story on.

And it's up to us to find out if there is a living brotherhood left in this world, so that the Templars can hunt them down and exterminate them and there by extinct the remaining threats to them.

Because the Templars believe that even though they have fifty young descendants of important Assassins, there are still plenty of them still out in the community, knowing about their own power and just waiting to destroy the Templars.

The Templars can't have anybody destroying their plans, or else the world order will collapse, since they consider themselves as pillars holding up this community.

And I no longer want a part of it.

I don't want to kill a creed that I would much rather belong to.

I have read about the assassins, about what they fight for: Every Person's right to be free and live as they choose, that everyone should have the freedom to choose.

And that's why, when I get assigned one of the remaining important ancestors of my dynasty, I will fight to find out where the remaining Assassins are, so that I can join them ones and for all.

It's time for me to set myself free from the controlling hands of the Templars, and join the Creed and become a part of the Brotherhood.


	2. Subject Twelve

"Subject Twelve!" As I heard the loud voice I shot up from the chair in the library and looked towards where the voice had called.

It was night, and nobody should be up and walking, including me.

I listened as footsteps were coming my way.

My heart pumped faster inside of my chest as I collected the papers that were skittered all over the table in the far back of the library.

Papers were I wrote down everything about my ancestors, and about the reasons to leave the Templars, reason that would get me murdered coldly if found by the wrong people.

"Just a sec!" I called back as I piled up the papers and slid them inside of my bag.

I turned around quickly to see who was calling for me.

He stood leaning against one of the big bookshelves, relaxed with his hands down in his pockets.

It was Lionel, one of my few friends in this place.

I should have remembered that he would come after me.

He had been here for as long as I have, we are actually the only two who has ever lasted this long without going crazy because of the power in the Animus.

He was twenty two years old, yet his eyes looked like they had seen enough for a life time.

He was wearing a grey shirt with the red cross embroidered on his chest over the heart, black pants and sneakers.

It was the only clothing that the Templars approved.

I was wearing the same thing, but shaped for my body instead of his.

He smiled vaguely and I nodded at him.

"Thirteen." I said in greeting, he nodded shortly in answer.

"What are you doing up here?" He asked me with another smile.

He knew that I used to spend my nights when I should be asleep up in the library, studying and trying to remember everything that I went through as one of my ancestors.

Tonight wasn't an exception.

But tonight wasn't about remembering memories, it was about making choices.

But I couldn't tell Lionel that, although we trusted one another, he believed in the Templars and was furious about how his assassin ancestors lived.

I on the other hand, admired their strength, which was an opinion that I needed to keep for myself if I wanted to keep on living.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" I asked him. His eyebrows shot up.

"I was about to ask you the same. You know you're not supposed to be up here, they would kill you if they found out." He said calmly, even though we both knew that breaking the laws inside of their walls, would lead to execution.

"I know." I said, mimicking his calm voice.

"But I had to finish this project, before we get the new mission tomorrow night." I said and walked towards him.

"Walk with me?" I asked, he shot a glance towards the table I had been sitting at, before joining me.

We started walking down the aisle towards the doors that lead towards the elevators.

Lionel quickly picked up our conversation were we left it.

"Or you're just enjoying the last hours before going back to the Animus?" His voice was calm, but I could hear that he wanted nothing else but to skip the whole leaving your body to connect with your ancestors bodies.

It was quite painful, and it took a lot of strength to melt together your mind with the new body.

That was why some of us didn't make it very long in this place. I had also seen people going mad from experiencing their ancestors' deaths.

Because even though you know it's not really you who dies, you can feel everything that the body feels, experience the fear of the victim and be able to experience death over and over again.

Summoning up all the times I have died, I'd say it'd be about eighty.

I shivered at the thought about the latest death I experienced, drowning.

When our bodies stay in the animus, our mind connects to the mind of the ancestor, and experiencing a year in their time, takes about three weeks in our time, and the last week before another mission was distributed to us for recovering from the trip inside of the animus.

Sometimes the Templars wanted us to skip a year or two in the lives of our ancestors, because of what their researchers have found out about that time, and this could be extremely confusing as well.

Time traveling is extremely dangerous, and the bleeding effect is a big part of why.

All the extreme risks that comes with traveling inside of the Animus, makes us die like flies sometimes.

That's why it's so very fascinating that Lionel and I have lasted for so long.

New people treat us like science projects, like we're dangerous and scary, others admire us and some even hate us for not dying.

It's quite a life I was living, but I wanted it to change. It wasn't the life I would choose if I had a chance.

I remembered that Lionel had said something, I looked up at him as we stepped through the doors of the library.

"Pretty much, So not looking forward to sit down in that thing again." I murmured.

Lionel nodded in agreement as we got to the elevators. He pressed the button shaped as the Abstergo logo and we waited in silence.

"I just wish they gave us more time in-between sessions, this schedule is stressing me out." Lionel said.

"Yet still you woke up on your precious time outside of the animus, to find me." I said, smiling in hope of lightening the mood.

Lionel smiled towards me as the elevator doors slid open.

"Like always then."

We stepped inside and Lionel clicked on the four, the floor where we employees and newcomers sleep.

There were six levels to this building, and the second floor is where the animus' are placed.

The ground floor is for training only, different machines that stimulates the brain and tricks it in to thinking that you're running outside, feeling the wind against your body, while you are actually just running on a simple treadmill.

Since going outside the headquarters is breaking the rules, they have designed something as close to the reality outside as possible.

The third floor is where dining, meetings and the closest thing to a normal living room for fifty persons is located.

The fifth floor is off limits for us, that is where the Templars have their rooms, where they sleep, eat and also have secret meetings that we aren't allowed to enter.

The only ones that are able to leave abstergo even for half an hour is the Templars and the engineer workers who keeps this place up and going, they are the ones who look after us and keeps track on our progresses during the time in the animus.

"I had to make sure that you got some sleep as well. Besides, being awake and able to use your own legs for a change is more important to me than sleep." Lionel sighed. I shot a glance at him.

His curly brown hair hanged down in his almost black eyes as he watched his feet.

He didn't want this life anymore, yet still he never complained, and he never quitted, he did what he was supposed to do and he did so greatly.

I on the other hand, wanted to spit the Templars in their faces as soon as they entered a room that I was in.

"Yeah you're right, but thanks for waking up and bringing me back to our rooms. I can't believe that you still do it after like what, ten years?" I said, Lionel laughed shortly.

"No problem, I just don't want you to get caught." He said easily.

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open silently.

The corridor seemed like it went on for miles when the dark screens on the outside of the building were brought down so that the light from outside was shut out.

Lionel and I started walking down the corridor, silently so that nobody would wake up and catch us sneaking around at night.

We passed many doors as we walked in silence, each door with numbers in red on.

Everyone was probably already asleep, since it was two in the morning.

Lionel stopped as we got to his door, I watched as he slid the card in the door and the tiny lamp turned green.

He opened the door.

"Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" He said and I nodded.

"Yeah, now go get some sleep Thirteen." I smiled.

"Will do." Lionel returned the smile and was about to close the door behind him.

I remembered something I had to ask him and slid my feet in between the door and the wall.

Lionel looked from my feet to my face and raised his eyebrows.

"By the way." I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"How come you always know when I'm no longer in my room?" I asked him, Lionel smiled and opened the door.

"You always tend to step on the creaking floorboard just outside my door." He demonstrated by stepping out in the corridor once again and adding pressure towards the floorboard.

It creaked and it sounded way louder than I thought it would, especially in the quiet and echoing corridor.

"Oh, I better remember that." I said. Lionel chuckled as he once again stepped inside of his room.

"Goodnight Subject Twelve." He said as he closed the door behind him.

I sighed quietly for myself, Lionel was the closest thing to a friend that I would ever get, it made me feel guilty because of how I was planning on turning against his belief.

No, saying that Lionel was my friend was an understatement. He was like my brother.

He's the only one who's showed caring towards me, and even though we can't spend that much time together, we always seem to be together in some kinds of ways.

I'm not in love with him, there's no such thing as romance in our relationship, but I love him as a brother and he protects me like I was his little sister.

I walked down the corridor, towards my own room while smiling at all the memories that Lionel and I had been able to share together.

But as I walked, the guilt feelings came back, he would never forgive me if he found out what I was planning. No matter how far away in the future my plans were for.

My hand slipped down in my pocket and I brought up the card, I started spinning it around in my hand as I walked. I had to focus on something else, to get the guilt feelings go away.

I couldn't help but to wonder in what era, whose life and body I would live in by tomorrow night.

The first hours in the new body are the hardest. You have to connect your own memory with theirs so that you can remember every important aspect in their lives that have led you to just that year or month or so. Yet still you have to remember who you are, why you are there and what you're after.

After learning about the persons past, you have to start controlling the body and live through everything that happens.

To connect your mind with a body is one of the hardest things to do, it usually takes a while before you can control the body, and in that time the only thing you can do is hang on to the persons mind and watch the world from their eyes for a moment.

It's all quite fascinating, yet confusing and scary, because you know that you'll have to witness things, things that you might not want to see.

The Templars will tell you what to do, how to react and so on, by letting your ancestors feelings blend in with your own.

That's another reason why people tend to go mad after being in the Animus, they can no longer separate their own feelings with their ancestors.

And they tend to start hallucinating and that's when the madness kicks in, also known as the bleeding effect.

The only way out from the madness, according to the Templars is to 'end the pain', which they will gladly help you with.

I finally got to my room, number 32 the red numbers said, I slid the card and opened the door.

All of the rooms looked alike, and the colors shifted from gray, white and black.

There was a toilet, a wardrobe, a bedside table with an alarm clock and a red rose on top of the wardrobe, to symbolize the Red Cross.

I hated the colors, I hated the rooms, I hated everything that had to do with the Templars.

Of course I had ancestors from the Templar society, but they too never wanted that life for themselves they were born in to something and they couldn't help it.

And even though some of them actually were just like the Templars that are controlling me now. Their memories are in no use for us. Thanks to them sticking by the Templar rules, I will never have to live as one of them.

I slipped of the bag from my shoulders and started unbuttoning the shirt as I looked at the bed in front of me in the middle of the room.

Finally, I thought to myself, finally I can sleep and forget about this world for a couple of hours.

After putting on my pajamas and brushing my teeth's thoroughly, I slid underneath the covers and lied down on the side, watching the gray wall in the dark room as I tried to relax my tensed body.

This time tomorrow, I will no longer be Melanie Cortado, I thought to myself.

I will be a true assassin, living by a creed and having a purpose in life that feels right for me.

Tomorrow, I will become one, with one of my many ancestors.


	3. The Morning After

The alarm clock ringed in a highly pitched tone the morning after, at six in the morning.

My eyes opened quickly and I pushed away the covers, dragging away the sleep left in my body as I did.

There was no room for being lazy at this place.

"Very well, we might as well get this over with quickly." I yawned and stretched out in the sheets.

I got up from the bed and went to my wardrobe.

At least I didn't have to think about what to wear, since everything looked alike.

Quickly I started dressing as I fought back every thought that wanted to take over my mind.

I had to clear my head so that the trip inside of the Animus would be as pain free as possible.

With strong feelings inside of this body before going inside of a new one, only makes the journey harder than usual.

By the time I was dressed I already felt like an emotionless shell.

I looked myself in the mirror as I brought up my long black hair in a ponytail, and flinched by what I saw looking back.

Even my skin looked gray, and sunk in.

Truth was that even without moving for three weeks every month, I still didn't gain weight.

The poor food they got us here while we were in the Animus, surely didn't satisfy our bodies.

I saw the way newcomers looked, with tanned skins and clear eyes, their hair glowing. But already after a week they started to look like everybody else in here.

We all signed a contract before entering this building, a contract binding us to the Templars rules and making it lethal for us to step outside against their commands.

The only time we had the sun in our faces, the wind in our hair was when we were inside of the Animus, and even then it wasn't our own body that could feel it.

When I finally managed to fit my hair up in a ponytail I grabbed the key card from the bed and went to the door.

I shot a last glance on the room, even though I hated it, it was the only home and place for myself that I had.

Then I opened the door and walked away.

The other 49 employees seemed to have woken up the same time as I, and we nodded towards one another as we all walked towards the elevators or the stairs.

I figured that waiting for the elevator wasn't something that I wanted to do, so instead I walked towards the stairs next to the elevators.

Even walking felt amazing to do, while I still could inside of my own body.

"Twelve!" A girl shouted, I stopped quickly before stepping down the stairs and turned around, causing people to shoot me annoyed stares as they had to walk by me.

A girl at seventeen hurried down the corridor towards me, waving her hand and trying to catch my attention.

She had been here for a month, yet still she had managed to keep the light in her big blue eyes.

It had been my job to show her around, the day she appeared here.

Apparently our ancestors had stumbled across one another and in some way we were relatives.

Although her blond beautiful hair and blue eyes didn't exactly make her look like a Cortado, but who was I to judge.

I couldn't help but to smile at the way how older employees looked at her like she was insane.

She managed to make me smile, which was quite hard to do.

I still hadn't manage to learn her name, was it Lilly? Sandy? Perhaps Mandy?

She came to halt beside me and smiled widely.

"Oh Melanie aren't you excited?" She smiled as we started walking down the stairs.

"Not really." I murmured.

"Figures, since you've done this so many times. But for me it's only the second time! Can you believe it? I hope they give me something cool, you know, like the life of an important and highly feared assassin.

I want something trying, something where I have to use everything they've learned me." She kept on talking in a very fast tempo as we went down the other half set of stairs. Luckily for me she didn't wait for an answer.

Others passed us quickly down the stairs as we came in to the big room for dinner, breakfast and lunch.

It smelled like Oatmeal mixed with sugar, milk and cinnamon, I sighed.

Christmas must be close in the outside world.

I sighed once again, I couldn't remember a real Christmas in my life, not even during my years as an orphan.

"Look, there's Subject Thirteen." The girl said in my ear as we walked towards the line waiting for workers to pile up food on plates for us.

The girl was right, Lionel stood next to Joanne, a girl who'd been here for five years, they both looked up as they heard the new girls' voice and smiled towards us.

I smiled vaguely as I stopped beside Lionel, glad to be with him for as long as possible.

"Good morning Melanie. Susan." He nodded towards the new girl and I finally remembered her name.

"How was your night?" I asked him as I took a plate and a spoon from the bench in front of us.

Lionel smiled, he knew I was thinking about our time outside our rooms the night before.

"Good and yours? Did you get some sleep?" He asked.

I nodded, smiling as well as the line moved slowly forward.

If Susan and Joanne noticed our weird smiles, they didn't mention it.

"What time is the meeting today?" Joanne asked us, even though she only looked at Lionel.

"At five, we'll be inside the Animus by six at the least." Susan answered expectantly.

"Great." Joanne said, smiling shortly towards Susan.

I suspected that Joanne had a thing for Lionel, but it didn't bother me. Lionel caught many girls' attention sometimes, yet I didn't quite understand why.

And the idea of hoping for a romance with someone inside of these walls is foolish.

We get a week once in a month together with one another here, that isn't exactly enough time for a love affair to break out, at least not in my opinion.

We meet so many people during our lives, because of the animus, some even spend enough time with people in the past that they tend to fall in love with them.

That's the most self-destructive thing to do, because you know the person is dead, and the feelings you feel are probably just the things that your ancestor felt, you're feelings are therefore not real.

Love, I thought and sighed, such a stupid and ignorant feeling.

The line moved forward once again and Joanne got her plate filled.

"I'll go get a table for us." She said and started walking away.

"Someone's got a thing for Lionel." Susan teased. Lionel looked up from his plate at this and lifted his eyebrows.

The way he looked so surprised made me and Susan laugh loudly.

"What? Who?" He looked confused.

Susan was about to answer but I stopped her by lifting my hand.

I laughed shortly once again and met Lionel's eyes.

"No one. Just go sit down and eat your breakfast." I said smiling.

He gave us a last confused glance before picking up his plate and walking after Joanne.

"Susan!" I laughed quietly. "If he finds out he'll never talk to Joanne!" I said.

I knew what used to happen with Lionel when girls started showing interest in him.

He got grumpy and told them to back off, afterwards I usually tried getting out of him why he became like that, but I never got a real answer.

"How do you know? Maybe he feels something for her?" She said, I was about to answer when I remembered that I actually never asked Lionel about what he felt for her.

I shook my head, thinking about feelings was a waste of time.

"Yeah you're probably right." I simply said and took my plate to walk over to their table.

People nodded in greeting towards me as I passed them, all of them with faces showing no emotions what so ever.

People usually smiled while being here, you could hear laughter and conversations all the time.

Most of them were happy and proud of being here.

But today everyone knew what was coming, and they were trying to prepare themselves the best they could.

I could feel the tension in the air as I walked towards the table Joanne had picked out for us.

I sat down next to Lionel and looked around the room, took in the room and the people inside of it before turning to my plate.

It was a reflex, to always check my surroundings before going off guard, a work injury from too much time spent inside of the animus as assassins out in the wild.

"I haven't been this excited for a mission before." Joanne said, I shot a confused glance at her before turning my focus on eating.

"Why?" Lionel said, Susan sat down beside me and started eating greedily.

"I don't know, it just feels like this time it will be different, I'm going to get back with some interesting news, I'm sure of it." Joanne said cheerfully.

"I hope I will too." Susan said with food in her mouth.

"Newcomers never get the important missions." Joanne said shortly.

I shook my head, for once I actually got mad. Why did Joanne feel the need to pick on Susan, what had she ever done?

"Why not?" Susan said disappointed.

"Not experienced enough." Joanne said coldly.

Susan turned her gaze down to her plate. I was shocked by the way Joanne was towards Susan.

"Maybe I'll prove you wrong." Susan murmured, I could see by the look on her face that Joanne had hurt her. I was very keen on looking after the ones I liked, especially the ones that turned out to be related to me, this was something I had picked up from my ancestors.

And to me, what Joanne did to Susan's self-confidence by practically saying that she wasn't good enough, was not Ok with me.

"Doubt it." Joanne said, to which I answered by slamming my fist against the table. Enough was enough, and someone had to tell Joanne that she had stepped over the line.

Susan jumped and Joanne dropped her spoon. Milk splashed up on her face as she did.

"Joanne, please! You very well know that taking time to be ignorant is a waste! Feelings only make the journey in the animus harder, and you of all should know that by now. Stop being so childish and eat!" I spat out before I could stop myself.

Lionel's mouth dropped at this, I looked down on my plate and focused to try to push the anger away.

Oh god, I thought to myself. That was the first time I ever snapped at someone.

I usually got mad, extremely easy, but never did I tell anyone that I was.

The others turned quiet and I could hear others sitting close to our table tune out. Their eyes felt like they could burn my skin in any minute. I had got myself some attention, which was something I didn't like and didn't need.

"You've got a little milk on your cheek." Lionel said to Joanne, I saw her cheeks getting red as she flipped away Lionel's hand and stood up straight.

"I will go now." She said, apparently furious and embarrassed.

"Do so." I said coldly, and Joanne walked away with angry steps, her hands turned into fists.

"You didn't have to do that." Susan said, laughing embarrassed by the thought of having to be protected.

It was a feeling that our ancestors would have been disappointed about.

It was something though about Susan that made me want to protect her, she was in some way a relative, relatives protect each other, or so I've at least heard.

"I know. But someone had to do it." I said, I looked up in Susan's face and she gave me a thankful little smile.  
>Maybe, I thought to myself as I returned the smile, maybe things won't be so hard when I get back from the trip in the animus, not with Susan and Lionel there.<br>I should have remembered that to hope for a better life for myself was and still is foolish.


	4. Time for the Meeting

Whoa I never thought people would read this! Lol, anyway I just wanted to say once again that I have changed some things and you will probably notice what is changed, and I'm sorry for doing it but I just felt like it had to be like this! So anyway, I hope you don't mind, and enjoy!

Breakfast past in a strange fog and all of a sudden I was sitting in a sofa in the living room, waiting for the meeting to start.

Susan had gone to speak with a friend of hers who had joined the Templars around the same time as she. And I was sitting together with Lionel in silence.

I was laying down in the sofa, with my foot dangling over the arm of the sofa, my head in Lionel's lap as he stroked thoughtfully his hand over my hair.

I didn't care that my hair was getting messy because of it, it didn't matter to me.

He was only trying to keep me calm, and he knew very well that I appreciated it.

We were both preparing ourselves for what was about to happen.

For every second that past I wanted this less than before, to belong to the Templars, to run errands to them like a little puppy only made me feel ashamed of myself.

My ancestors would be ashamed of me, I knew that for sure.

I wanted to be free, be able to choose for myself. I wanted my freedom and most of all: I wanted to get away from this hell.

"Are you ok? You seem frustrated." Lionel said all of a sudden, I looked away from the roof to see him looking down at me.

"No, I'm fine." I swallowed. "Just a bit nervous, that's all."

He didn't seem to buy it, but as he opened his mouth to speak a bell sounded.

It was time for the meeting.

We got up to our feet and walked towards the gathering room for meetings, it was like a big aula where roads upon roads of chairs spread out and in the middle the leading Templars waited for us.

Lionel and I sat down in the best seats we could find before everyone else entered the room.

"Wonder what they will say this time." A boy said beside me, he was talking to his friend yet I couldn't help but over hearing him.

His tone, bitter and tired, made me think that he hated them as well. Wasn't I the only one who wanted to get out of here?

Were there more? Could this be of use to me?

Thoughts started swirling around inside of my head which wasn't a good thing, I bit my lip and concentrated on the pain to stop the thinking.

We all gathered quickly and already after a few minutes the Templars stepped up on the podium in the middle and looked at us all.

"Welcome students to this very special meeting today." It was our boss, Doctor Warren Vidic.

He was one of the leading Templars together with subject 4 Daniel Cross, who was the first to ever try the Animus, and Mrs. Olga Smith who helped Vidic constructing it.

Vidic started pacing back and forth on the podium with his hands folded on his back, while his colleagues stood still and watched us all with cold eyes.

"Do you want to know what makes this meeting so special, here today?" He paused in his sentence while continuing with his pacing. All of our eyes were on him.

"You are the reason why. Some of you have proven to be far more outstanding than we ever suspected. You have shown to us that you really are here for a purpose. Therefore, we are for the first time sending two of you to the same time and place. This will be a historical thing that we will remember for the rest of our existence…" He made an effective pause to build up the tension in the room.

Lionel and I looked at each other at the same time, we both knew that he was talking about us. We were the ones who had stayed alive the longest, and we were always called: the ones with purposes. It was all set and done. People were shooting glances in our direction, they all knew it as well.

"If it all goes as planned, that is." Vidic ended darkly.

Now it was time for Olga to speak.

"That is not the only thing that we have changed. In order to make the system faster, the engineers who are stationed by every animus to check upon your transfer into the body of your ancestor as well as the whole journey, have been informed of all the details of your mission and will go through it with you individually while preparing for the Animus. We feel that this new system will make it all … quicker." Olga ended with a smile and subject four stepped forward to inform the newcomers about the risks and ways to make it easier to connect your mind with another body.

I no longer listened to what they had to say, I was lost in my own thoughts.

What did the Templar win by sending two of us in to the same time?

"This is unusual, why send us to the same time?" Lionel whispered in my ear.

I shrugged.

"I have no idea, but I have a bad feeling about it." I said, and immediately regretting it.

Lionel might question the way the Templars think, but he'd never say that they were wrong, ever.

He gave me a long thoughtful gaze but didn't respond.

The meeting took about an hour, after the newcomers had asked questions. Vidic rapped it up by saying a few words.

"Those who are dealing with the animus for the first time or only have been here for a year, follow Subject Four. Year 2 to 5 follow Olga. And the rest, follow me, but I'd like Joanne to come with me as well." My mouth dropped open at this, and I could see from the corner of my eye how Lionel reacted the same way.

I could hear how Lionel started speaking in different languages out of pure confusion and shock.

I myself tried to understand why Joanne all of a sudden was in use for them.

We got to our feet as Doctor Vidic led us towards the doors. We were about fifteen that had lasted for more than four years and in a gathered troop we all walked down the stairs to the second floor, this was where all the animus's were settled in tiny glass surrounded rooms together with a chair and a table where the engineers sat most of the time during our journey.

They had different machines on the tables, machines that checked upon our brain stimulation, machines that replayed everything that we were seeing. There was also a microphone set in each and every room that the engineers could use to communicate with us while in the animus, to guide us through if problems appeared. And if the microphone didn't help, there was a machine that let the engineers control your ancestors' body, only used in case of emergencies.

Vidic guided us through tiny passages in-between the animus's and led us toward the left corner of the room where somewhere further into the middle changes in the rooms had been made.

Two rooms had been changed into one, where now two animus's and two pairs of engineers were standing and waiting patiently.

Vidic reached down the pockets of his white robe and pulled out a piece of paper.

"I'll call your names and the room number that your animus is placed, work quickly and you'll be awarded with more information about your ancestor. Your animus awaits a few minutes away, so don't drag your feet. " He took time to look at us before continuing.

"Richie, number four. Paula number 6. Michael number 8." They all bowed before walking away to their rooms, where the engineers started reading to them from sheets as they sat down in the animus. The tension between those of us still waiting felt like a cloud surrounding me.

"Luke number 12." Vidic continued, I heard a sigh and the guy who had been sitting next to me walked away from our group.

He looked not too happy about being there, and I knew that feeling very well.

I added talking to him to my list of things to do when I got back from the animus, if I made it that is.

"Joanne and Lionel number 7 and 8, you two are the ones who will work together, congratulations."

My thoughts had made me off guard and as I heard Vidic speak my mouth dropped open.

"Oh my god! Doctor Vidic thank you so much!" I could hear Joanne say, as I shot a glance at her she was hugging Lionel who actually hugged her back with a surprised smile.

"You won't be disappointed Vidic, I promise." Joanne said joyfully.

I wanted to go slap her because of how she kissed up towards Vidic. How could Vidic possibly think that Joanne was the right person for such an important task?  
>"Idiot!" I hissed quietly to myself.<p>

"_Doctor_ Vidic. And you don't speak unless I've ordered you to do so, now move on." Vidic said without looking at her.

I could feel how my heart sank like a stone, why her?  
>Out of us all, wasn't I the one who disserved this kind of missions? I shook my head out of disappointment.<p>

Yet I couldn't help but to wonder why I cared about getting this mission, my time at this place was soon to be over, I didn't need them to remember me. I needed them to let go of me and to forget that I even existed.

I saw Lionel glance at me over his shoulder before being dragged away by a happy Joanne, I tried mimicking to Lionel but he could no longer see me. To run away after him would break rules so instead I had to stand still and wait for Vidic to call my name up.

I had to speak to him, I didn't know why, I just knew I had to.

I couldn't concentrate, I had to see him before going in to the animus

"Melanie, number 9. Good luck your task will be trying." Vidic said without raising his eyes from the paper. Finally, I thought as I started walking away from our group.

I walked in death silence, careful to not show how badly I wanted to run.

Joanne had gotten the greater mission than I had, she was able to rewrite history and what did I get?

I got a trying task for myself and losing my title as the child with a purpose.

Now I was really disappointed.

As I got out of sight for Vidic I started running the way I had seen Lionel disappear.

The room was like a big labyrinth and I had to turn left or right as fast as possible in corners if I didn't want run into the glass walls.

I started picking up speed and running past corners and rooms like it was nothing and finally I could see the two of them walking towards their room, hand in hand.

They were just about to walk inside of the room, if I didn't reach him in time the glass door would close after him and my chance would be gone, the doors won't open for us until the session is complete.

I pushed myself a little bit more since I couldn't scream after him, my heart pumping quickly inside of my chest.

"Lionel!" I hissed as I finally got close to him and grabbed his free arm.

He spun around and saw me, to which he looked behind me in case of me being followed.

"Melanie have you gone insane? You'll lose important information for taking more time to run after me!" He grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me, I placed my hand around his arm and pushed him with me towards the wall.

He looked confusedly at me, which I understood since I wasn't sure myself what I was doing.

"Why aren't we the ones who get send to the same time?" I felt like a child as I asked him such a stupid question.

"I don't know, did you really have to run after me to tell me that?" Lionel said, I couldn't help but to look a little hurt. Lionel was able to see it before I shut out my feeling.

"I didn't mean it like that, my point is why did they choose this mission to be different?" Lionel whispered and looked me in the eyes seriously.

"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this. There's something going on, and I don't trust Joanne." I whispered back, we had to speak quickly if we didn't want Joanne to come after Lionel and find me there, and if the engineers would see me they could report me to Vidic for wandering around and not doing what I'm told and who knows what he would to do me.

Sweat started trickling down my back from the run.

Lionel rolled his eyes but couldn't help but to smile.

"Because of what she said to Susan? Mel that's childish, I will be alright. I figured out who you said loved me, it is Joanne, right? Then she won't do anything stupid, she'll try to be kind to me and protect me even though that's unnecessary." Lionel smiled confidently and gently lifted my hand from his arm.

"Lionel?" Joanne said from the room, she finally saw us through the glass doors and started walking towards us.

Still we had a few minutes left.

"Do you like her?" I asked him quickly.

Lionel didn't seem as surprised by the question as I had hoped.

"I don't know, maybe." He smiled.

"Lionel we're wasting important minutes and information!" Joanne started getting impatient. I couldn't believe that he actually thought about liking someone like her.

But no matter what he felt, I had to respect it, he was the only friend I had, I couldn't lose him.

"Just don't trust her too much, Ok?" I hissed.

"If that's what you want, little miss overprotective sister." Lionel said teasingly, I couldn't help but to smile back. It was the first time he'd called me his little sister.

I had to do something to show that I felt the same way.

My hand went up to his face and stroked away a lock of his hair from his face. It was the best thing I could come up with in such short notice. Expressing feelings wasn't something I was used to.

"Take care, brother." I smiled.

Joanne got out of the doorway only to stop in shock at the spot after that.

Her mouth fell open as she saw the two of us and seemed unable to move, which I took to my advantage.

I dropped my hand from Lionel and gave him a last smile, until I started running back the way I had come.

I looked up to see the big clock on the wall, I had wasted ten minutes on Lionel, which meant that I wouldn't get as much information as I should have at first.

I pressed my body hard, which felt extremely relieving since my body wouldn't be able to use muscles for about a month.

But soon I was already by the room with my number on, and I had to stop the running.

The glass door opened as I stepped towards it and without greeting my engineer I sat down in the animus and stared up at the roof with my chest heaving up and down fast.

I took a deep breath and started clearing my head from thoughts.

"Good evening Melanie, well perhaps we should get started then. Ten minutes have already passed." A young woman sat down in a chair with wheels and rolled over to my side, she held a sheet of papers and started turning pages in it.

I focused on her voice as she started reading about my mission.

"You will go back to Renascence Italy as your ancestor Ofelia De Luca. A girl who lives in Florence, her brother was an assassin, her father got killed by traitors when she was ten and her mother spent her whole life as a courtesan after her fathers' death. You'll get send back to when she was 17 and lived as a courtesan. The reason why she is so fascinating is because of connections, more than that I can't tell you since you wasted ten minutes, I'm afraid."

I sighed, and the woman put away the papers and grabbed a pair of gloves and a syringe.

"You'll feel a little sting." She said concentrated and bowed down towards my left arm.

By now I was used to the little sting and did no longer scream, although it hurt.

I clenched my teeth together.

"Can you tell me anything about the first memory?" I asked her.

I knew the way the engineers worked, talk a little with them and sooner or later you will get at least a bit more information.

"I.. Uh..." She murmured as she rolled away towards a computer combined with the animus.

Her fingers flew across the screen and her glasses reflected what the screen said.

"Please?" I said.

The woman looked at me for a second before sighing.

"This stays between the two of us or else they will kill me! You'll be sent back to three short memories the first thing you'll do. Do you know Il mentor Ezio Auditore Da Firenze?" My mouth fell open. Of course I knew who he was, he was one of the most brilliant Assassins, and his history was something all of us here at the headquarters had to know.

I nodded to make the woman continue.

"He's the big reason why you're sent back to this time, your ancestor knew him quite well from what I gathered." The woman said with a secretive smile and looked at me above the tip of her glasses.

That was strange, I didn't remember reading about a girl named Ofelia being a close friend to Ezio.

The computer in front of her beeped and she read what was written on the screen.

"No trace of infection what so ever. You're ready to go!" She said smiling.

She rolled back over to my side and pressed a button that made a screen fold down over my face.

What the computer screen said was now written on this screen.

"I'll just connect you to this machine that will show us what you're witnessing, and when I say go you'll count to ten." She stuck a needle under my skin and I heard the machine react.

The woman pressed a few buttons on the screen again and then rolled back to my side.

"Start counting." She murmured as she bent over me and looked me in the eyes through the screen.

I started counting from one to ten and for every number I started feeling how my mind got ready to float away.

I could see on the screen how the Abstergo logo appeared.

Pictures of my Ancestor flashed by over the screen, too fast for me to see but I knew that my unconsciousness snapped up and memorized the images.

"Nine." I could hear myself say.

"Have a safe journey." The woman said, her voice sounding distorted as I drifted away.

"Ten." I said and closed my eyes.

It felt like I was getting torn away from my body and pushed into another in the passing of a few seconds.

I didn't know if I screamed or not but a cold hand grabbed mine, if It was what my own body or my new body was experiencing I couldn't tell.

Different kinds of scents burned my nose and a hot wind swished by my ear.

As I remembered how to blink I started opening my eyes, only to be sickened to the stomach by images from the room at Abstergo and this new time where I could see people in colorful clothing.

I couldn't gather what my eyes saw in time so I finally gave up trying and closed my eyes.

"Melanie, you have to let go of your body, stop feeling!" The woman from abstergo shouted from a distance.

What, was I feeling something?

Was that why this transfer started off so weird?  
>Be a cold shell, shut down the feelings, don't think I ordered myself.<p>

Voices filled my head and daylight reflected under my eyelids, it was working.

Feelings from the new body overwhelmed me, this person was strong minded, yet broken down and unhappy, all of the things I was. Great, maybe this mission would be easier than Vidic made it sound like?

Don't think, echoed inside of my head as I shut myself down.


	5. Ofelia De Luca

"That boy Ezio Auditore tried flirting with me again." Cristina said to me, the girls giggled and I could feel myself smiling.

I opened my eyes after letting the sun warm my face, it wasn't usual for me to be able to enjoy the sun for such long time as today. Paola only let me work inside of the brothel and not on the streets.

It was something about my age, that being so young could make me an easy target for men who didn't care about paying us.

Today was one of my few days off, which I spend together with the girls.

I felt a small amount of happiness, which I hadn't felt ever since my father had died and my brother disappeared.

Together with the girls I felt comfortable in my own skin, which I usually didn't.

_**All of a sudden I, Melanie, remembered that I was inside of the Animus, and the thoughts I heard was from the girl I was now being.**_

_**She opened her eyes and as she did I saw everything she saw, we both starred towards where the voice had come from, it was Cristina Vespucci, Ofelia's friend.**_

_**I exhaled happily all though nothing happened to Ofelia's body, I couldn't control it just yet, but the transfer had gone well and now her memories where mine, her appearance, her body and her way to behave and feel were mine now, all I had to remember was that I had to be able to tell her and my feelings apart.**_

_**But for now, I had to blend in to her body and let her appearance steer us, let her be her for a while before I could take over.**_

"_**This is your engineer speaking Melanie, you did well after a while, I'll contact you later when you're in need of help. Over and out." I heard the young woman speak inside of my head, I felt a burst of relief before letting this girl Ofelia's feelings control **__**our **__**body.**_

_**I knew that the only way for me to survive in this body was to become Ofelia, and not trying to be myself while inside of her body.**_

_**So I shut out my own mind, and started hearing only her mind, let it steer us both until I got strong enough to take over.**_

"Ofelia, did you hear what I said?" Cristina asked me, I lifted my eyebrows.

"Yes, and did you tell him you weren't interested?" My voice had a thick Italian accent, I sounded girly and a bit shy.

I felt secure together with my friends, we had known each other for our whole life and there was nothing we didn't tell each other.

They knew I was a courtesan and they respected it, since they knew that was the only way for me to make a living since my father died, and my brother had disappeared.

We sat on a bench together at the plaza in Firenze, discussing the young Ezio, son of Giovanni Auditore who Paola, the brothel mother, stood in debt to. All though the part about Paola the girls didn't know of, which was the way Paola had wanted it when she had told me.

Camellia, Valentina and Cristina were the only friends I had in this town, apart for the other girls at the brothel.

Since people tend to look down on you if you're a courtesan, making new friends is quite impossible.

Cristina smiled at me and shook her head.

"No, I only told him that his ways of flirting didn't work on me."

I smiled and could feel my cheeks burn as I thought about Ezio.

The other girls laughed once again, as they used to when Cristina spoke.

Cristina was the girl that all of us admired, for her looks, her style and her ways with boys.

"Ezio just like many other boys fall for pretty girls like you Cristina, without knowing how to approach them." Valentina said.

I looked down in my lap, not fully agreeing with what they made Ezio look like.

He was a good young man, my mom would have been proud of me for once if I ever got that boy to fall for me.

He was from a good family, and had money and a job to look forward in the future when taking over his father's business as a banker, he was the perfect ideal for a husband.

"I actually find him quite charming, he's handsome." I blushed.

I couldn't see what their facial expressions showed, instead I looked down on the red silk dress I was wearing, a dress that showed too much of my legs and my chest to be proper for a young lady, but since I was working at a brothel then nothing about me was proper.

My hair was up in a simple bun in my neck, and a few curls were hanging down from the bun, I didn't look special. Not like Cristina.

"I don't find a boy who starts fights against other noble boys, that much of a charming boy at all. His brother Federico is more of a man." Camellia said, to which we all laughed.

"Federico is too old for you, and has a reputation of being quite a womanizer." Valentina answered.

That I knew very well of, Federico was a regular costumer on the Rosa in Fiore.

"Ladies, speak of the devil." Cristina hissed and pointed towards the center of the plaza.

There was Federico together with his younger brother Ezio, Federico put his hand on his little brother's shoulder and they both seemed to laugh at something.

"Ezio seems to have been in a fight again, if only we could hear what they were saying." I whispered.

"Does it matter? Ezio is usually in a fight." Cristina said.

Even though she sounded nonchalant I could see in her eyes that she wanted to know as well.

The famous Auditore brothers were usually the talk of the town, at least amongst the girls.

The brothers were too far away from our bench for us to be able to hear what the spoke about, but they both seemed happy.

Their brotherly love for one another made me miss my own brother, who had been away for over a year now.

The brothers started walking away together, probably away to their home, which was something I wanted to do so badly.

And by that I didn't mean my tiny room at the Rosa in Fiore, I meant my real home, that home where I had lived as a child.

"Remember Ezio's face Ofelia, if you're lucky you'll see him in the near future." Cristina said and stood up. I blushed by the way she tried teasing me.

"Now, we've been sitting down for too long, let's walk for a while." She said and reached out for my hand with a lovely smile.

The next second everything went white in front of me, and I knew that I was getting transferred in time to another place.

"_**Now you know the basics, let's move on to the next memory of Ezio a few months later, shall we?"**_

People screamed and talked as they pushed one another to get closer to the scene in the middle of the plaza, I walked together with Camellia while looking for Cristina.

She had sent Camellia after me to tell me to hurry here, something was going on and I didn't have a great feeling about it.

The only time that people gathered like this, was either for festivals or executions, and a festival wasn't the most convincing thing to be waiting in the middle of a normal work day.

"What is going on?" Camellia whispered to me.

She had bumped in to Cristina on her way from her father's job, and had only been informed to run after me and get here as soon as possible.

"I don't know, but it sounds like it's a hanging." I swallowed loudly.

Hanging's was something I feared, I could wake up screaming in the night while remembering the night my father was hanged.

The crowd behaved just the way they had that night, friends and companions had turned against my father in only split seconds because of what Uberto Alberti had said back then.

Now I feared someone else's father was bound to the same destiny.

Finally I saw Cristina standing in the crowd and hurried towards her.

"Cristina what on earth is happening?" I said to her, taking her hand in mine as I saw that she was upset.

Her eyes met mine and I could see that she had been crying.

"There's to be a trial." She whispered, I had to bend towards her to hear her voice above the noise that the crowd was making.

Sweat started trickling down my back because of the warmth the crowd made.

"A trial against whom?" I asked chocked, so it was as I feared.

Cristina sniffed and tried to hold back tears.

"A trial against Ezios' brothers and father." She sobbed, pulling a napkin to her eyes to pad away tears.

Quickly I turned around towards the scene as the crowd got silenced by no other man than that bastardo Uberto.

My hand went to my mouth in shock, I couldn't believe the scene I was witnessing.

"No, this can't be right! What have they ever done? Giovanni is a banker!" I called out to Cristina.

Cristina sobbed.

"It is true, they stand accused of treason." She said.

I couldn't believe what she was saying, Cristina had feelings for Ezio, she knew him.

They had spent nights together in her bedroom, she had told me, doing things out of love.

They expressed things out of love, and Cristina had over and over bragged about how much of a man Ezio was.

She couldn't possibly believe that Ezio was from a family of traitors, a family of spineless liars?

I had kept my eyes on Ezio and his brother ever since Cristina had told me too, Ezio had become more and more alike his brother and soon he started visiting the brothel every now and then, I had of course not offered my services.

But other than fighting, visiting brothels and being womanizers, Ezio and his brother never did something wrong, something unusual.

"Cristina, how can you say that the man you tend to marry one day, is from a family of traitors?" I grabbed her shoulder and shook her lightly, to which Camellia reacted to by pushing me backwards from Cristina with force that I would have never thought that she off all had.

She looked at me as if I was insane for reacting the way I did, when I thought the same thing about them for not.

Clearly Camellia believed in what Cristina told.

"No, I do not think that he's from a family of traitors, I believe that he is one himself." She said coldly.

My breath got caught somewhere in my lungs, I couldn't get a word out. Was she speaking the truth?  
>No, I had no doubt that Giovanni was innocent, Paola had told me otherwise, but how could I prove it?<p>

How could I prove someone's innocence when not having any proof, or even any business in the matter?

As Uberto spoke, the people listened, they always did, they never thought about If Uberto ever lied, but I knew he did.

They seemed to be blinded by what Uberto said was the truth, and it seemed as if I was the only one

who knew better than to believe him.

"Giovanni Auditore, you and your accomplices stand accused of the crime of treason. Have you any evidence to counter this charge?" Uberto spoke loudly and the crowd listened like puppets.

They believed everything he said.

My head turned towards the stage once again and I swore because of my short length, it made it almost impossible for me to see what was going on.

I stood on the tips of my toes and finally I could see the stage merely, where Giovanni, Federico and Petruccio stood lined up behind ropes as a hangman put the ropes around their necks.

This wouldn't end well.

Petruccio, the youngest Auditore brother, looked horrified, I saw tears of fear trickling down his cheeks.

I felt such a strong anger build up inside of me towards Uberto, Petruccio was only a child! An innocent and sick child, how could Uberto be so barbarian so cold hearted to hang a child?

"This is wrong!" I hissed between gritted teeth's.

"Yes the documents that were delivered to you last night!" Giovanni spat furiously.

"That's the proof you need Cristina! They are innocent!" I said to Cristina, she rolled her eyes as Camellia put her arms around her in order to comfort her.

According to me Cristina needed everything but getting comforted, I thought more of something like a good old beat.

"Ofelia you're blinded by his lies!" She hissed to me.

Rage built up inside of me, how could she? How dared she?

"You're the one who's blinded!" I spat back and turned my head towards the scene again.

I watched Federico's face, his jaws clenched together tightly, he seemed unwilling to show how scared he was. He too was innocent, he had done nothing wrong.

I could see it in his eyes, but then why couldn't everybody else see it?

If only there was a way for me to stop this madness.

"I'm afraid I know nothing about these documents." Uberto said nonchalantly, waving a hand as if to say that no matter what Giovanni said it was rubbish.

I was furious about the way that no one saw how he acted, the way he just said what he wanted people to believe, and they believed it without blinking.

"He's lying!" A familiar voice shouted.

Finally somebody to fix this mess, I thought with a relieved sigh.

Now ezio surely had the documents that Giovanni had spoken off, finally everything would be sorted out, and the truth would be revealed.

I turned around to see Ezio running up the stairs, but as I finally saw his face, half covered in shades from the hood he was wearing, I saw nothing but fear in his eyes.

Ezio didn't have a plan, or the documents, and now he had to witness his family die while not being able to do anything about it.

I felt how tears started burning in my eyes, I knew exactly how he felt.

"Ezio!" I breathed, feeling sorry for what was about to happen, what he was about to witness.

I saw him as he started pushing through the crowd towards the scene.

"I have to get to him!" I said loudly, to which Cristina grabbed my hand before I was able to run.

"Ofelia, have you gone mad? Can't you see, you're blinded by his looks! He's a traitor just like your father was!" She told me. My mouth dropped when she spoke about my father.

We hardly ever spoke about his death, but I never stopped doubting that they believed that he was a traitor, now I had gotten the evidence.

"How dare you?" I whispered, Cristina seemed already be sorry for what she had said, seemed to try to come up with something to say in order to calm me down, but it was too late

My reply to her statement was stepping on her toes hard and then slapping my palm against her cheek, her head snapping to the side because of the force.

My mouth dropped as I watched her cheek turning red already.

It was the first time that I had ever hit someone.

Never, even when my mom accused me of being the reason why my father got killed, even when my brother told me that he was going to leave me and mother, no matter how mad I had gotten I had never acted out on the fury.

I had no idea where that power came from that I used for the hit, but it felt so right to shut Cristina up for once, to just for once be the one to have the last saying in it all.

No matter how deeply people believed that my father had been a traitor, they should've never told me what they thought, not if they didn't want a red burning mark on their cheeks afterwards

No one talked about my father like that in my presence, no one.

"What are you doing?" Camellia said to me and laid a hand on Cristina's shoulder.

I looked away towards Ezio and then back to them.

They were my friends, my only friends that I had ever had, and probably ever would have.

And yet even though they were my friends I still couldn't help but to think how little they meant to me comparing to Ezio, who was practically a stranger, at that moment.

"I won't stand for this!" I said, as if that would explain it all. But I wasn't going to explain myself to them if they were foolish enough to believe Uberto even though evidence of him lying existed.

I spun around on my heels and started running towards Ezio, passing and pushing people aside as I ran.

People shouted mean things after me, things about me being a courtesan and so on, but I didn't stop to listen. I had to get to Ezio.

"In the absence of any compelling evidence to the contrary, I am bound to pronounce you GUILTY! You and your collaborators are hereby sentenced…" Uberto pointed towards them, and I could see the shadow of a smile pass by on his lips "To death."

I heard Giovanni shouting to Uberto but I couldn't hear what he said over the loud voices of the crowd.

But I was also too focused on running, pushing and getting through the crowd and to Ezio, to hear anything else but the beating of my own heart.

But as I was almost beside him, just when I was about to reach out my hand to his, I saw from the corner of my eye how Uberto signed to the guard to hang them.

My eyes went from the happenings on the stage, towards Ezio.

He was dressed in a strange looking cloak I saw now as my brain worked in slow motion, his face hooded and his teeth's gritted as he pushed his way furiously through the crowd.

I realized as he was getting further away from me, that I had stopped because of shock. Quickly I forced myself to start running after him again.

I reached out for Ezio's hand when the sounds of sneers that stretched shot through the air.

"Father!" Ezio screamed, devastated and desperate.

He pushed people furiously aside and made them fall to the ground by the force, to get to the front row of people closest to the stage.

I followed in his path as fast as I could, when I saw how Uberto discovered Ezio in the crowd.

"No! They'll kill him as well!" I heard someone shout from the crowd.

Suddenly a determination filled me, mixed with compassion.

I couldn't stand by and watch Ezio die like everybody else in the crowd seemed to wait for.

Ezio was a man, the only living man left in his family, how would they survive if Ezio didn't protect them, how would the Auditore name live on if there was no man left to distribute it?

One thing I knew for sure, and that was that I would make my best to make sure that Ezio survived this.

My hand finally caught Ezio's and I pushed him back with all the force I had in my tiny little body.

Ezio stopped and turned around to see who was stopping him from, at least what it seemed like when shooting a glance at his wild eyes, killing Uberto.

Confusion passed his face as he looked at me, he wasn't even aware of who I was. I should have realized that he would react that way, I thought as I felt my cheeks burn. But I had no choice, I had to stop him from a mistake and getting himself killed, even though he didn't know who I was.

"There! Grab the boy! He's one of them!" Uberto screamed from the stage and I could see how the guards turned to see who Uberto was pointing at, as they was Ezio they all started walking towards us.

Ezio turned around towards Uberto and tried breaking free from my grip, but I held him back as good as I could by digging my nails into the fabric of his coat.

And even though that by holding back Ezio I was almost causing myself to fall, I didn't let go.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you for what you've done!" He spat towards Uberto.

"Ezio he's not worth it! If you don't run the guards will take you down!" I hissed to Ezio, he turned around to look at me again with anger and confusion mixed in his eyes.

"Who are you?" He said. I shook my head quickly.

"Doesn't matter, just run!" I said to him.

I saw from the corner of my eye how the guards started getting closer as I turned around still with Ezio's hand in mine without actually realizing it, to watch how guards from everywhere started to surround us.

"She's right, you better run boy, and fast." Ezio and I both turned to this new voice, the voice of an old thieve standing beside us in the crowd, watching us with a set of serious eyes behind wrinkles.

A girl who I knew from the brothel was standing next to him, and she nodded quickly in agreement.

Ezio looked from them both to me, without really knowing what to do.

But he had to choose quickly, the time was running out and I wasn't going to let him get killed.

"Stop right there!" One of the bigger guards screamed to Ezio.

He didn't seemed to know what to do, and that he wouldn't make up his mind quickly enough if he wanted to be able to flee.

I searched my brain quickly for something that would help.

All of a sudden, without even thinking twice about the consequenses, I had ripped the thin rope around my neck apart and a key that led to my room in the Rosa in Fiore was now in my hands.

Quickly I pushed the key in Ezios hand and made him close his fingers around it.

"This is the key to my room in the Rosa in Fiore, tell them Ofelia sent you. You can hide there until the guards give up running after you for the day. Now go!" I whispered to him.

Ezio looked like he was surprised by the way I helped him, and seemed questioning if he could trust me or not. But the guards where getting closer, and he had no other choice but to run in order to survive.

And so that's what he did, he ran like I had never seen a man run before.

He passed me as quickly as the wind and started running away from the stage and the bodies of his brothers and father, hopefully in order to survive.

I prayed to God, if he even existed, that Ezio would survive this.

"_**Melanie I'm watching you're heartbeats on the monitor, and I can see that you're getting carried away by all of these feelings. But remember not to get too attached to Ofelia and Ezio. Just see this as a dream." The woman from Abstergo said as it once again went white in front of my eyes. I got irritated, of course. I knew that Ofelia and the others were dead. I wasn't stupid, I just felt sad for Ezio.  
>"You'll witness the talk Ezio and Ofelia had the following evening, and after that you'll get send to the important time. The time when Ezio comes in to Ofelia's life once again. The rest I can't tell you, you'll just have to make it through by yourself. But I can assure you that this mission is far more difficult than you'd ever gone through. You're friends aren't the only one who will rewrite history this month, you are also going to give it a try."<strong>_

_**I didn't get much smarter by what she told me, but there was no time for asking. Colors started appearing before my eyes and I combined my mind with Ofelia's once again.**_


	6. Decisions

I shivered as the cold wind drew by my face, it was night time in Florence and I had to get home now, before the walking proofs of the risks of drinking too much wine got out from their houses and started haunting the streets after easy targets like me.

I had been wandering around for the rest of the day after the execution, clueless of what to do, of what to think.

I knew that if Ezio had listened to me, he would still be in my room, and I was afraid of how he would react towards me when I entered it.

But never the less, I had to get home. So I walked towards the Rosa in Fiore all by myself with a thin shawl wrapped around my naked shoulders.

After the disappearing of Ezio, I had gone to Cristina again in order to talk some sanity in to her, only to be spat on.

It had felt terrible, to no longer have friends left in this world, to no longer want to live.

But at least I had to live long enough to know that Ezio would be all right. I didn't understand this longing of mine, I had never felt like this. I guessed that it was because of how he now felt the same way that I had some years ago. And that I knew that different from me, he could survive on his own. The difference was that he was a man, a strong and healthy man who could make a living out of anything. As a woman without a father or a brother to look after me, I had no other choice than to become a nun and live in a cloister, preaching to a God I didn't believe in, or to live as a prostitute on the streets.

I chose the option that seemed to give me more freedom than the other.

The night sky was full of beautiful stars and a big full moon, it was rare that I was able to enjoy these kinds of nights.

But the thing was, that this wasn't a night for looking at stars, pretending that nothing was wrong in this world, this night was for putting things back to place as much as possible to a broken man and the remaining's of his family.

I opened the door to the brothel and flinched as I saw men waiting in the sofas for the other girls to get them to the rooms.

I was actually quite confused with the fact that Paola hadn't sent someone after me, since I had missed a whole day of work.

The Rosa in Fiore needed some repairing here and there, but it was actually quite beautiful with red satin covering walls, curtains hanging from the ceiling and down.

If only I wasn't aware of what happened behind locked doors, then I probably would've loved to live here.

Instead of walking up the stair case towards the corridor with rooms where the men were taken care of, I went to the corridor behind the stairs.

These were the rooms were we could actually get some sleep, where we lived when not working.

I let my hand touch carefully the beautiful paintings hanging on the walls as I thought about Ezio.

I prayed that he was calm, or simply just anything but angry.

An angry full grown man isn't something I can take on for myself, without getting killed while trying.

My hand landed on the doorknob to my room, for minutes or seconds I only stood there, hesitating on going inside or not.

But finally, I took a deep long breath and opened the door and stepped inside.

I placed my back against the door as I closed it behind me, and my eyes went to Ezio.

He was sitting, looking like a giant, on my bedside, his elbows on his knees and bending forward with the hood still covering his face.

My tiny window was covered with curtains and the only light source was a candle standing on the bedside table.

It lit up his face, and from what I could see he hadn't been crying yet. And he wouldn't do it now either, especially with me near since crying showed signs of weakness.

He should've watched me as I entered the room, he doesn't have the luxury of not being careful and on the alert, I thought as I watched him carefully.

The silence between us was pushing me into talking, I wasn't very good at handling these kinds of things, I mean moments where feelings were involved, and it certainly didn't help that he didn't try talking.

"How are you?" I asked after a while, my voice trembling a bit.

Finally he looked up at me, seeking my eyes in the dim light, I could see his jaw tense up.

It was a stupid question to ask, I realized as I blushed darkly.

"How did you know that my sister and mother were hiding here?" He asked me suspiciously.

My mouth dropped.

"I didn't. All I knew was that you needed a place to hide for a while." I stuttered.

"Anneta was my family's housekeeper. She led them here when my father and brothers were taken away from our house. Do you know who she is?" I could see him swallow hardly, he surely didn't like to explain himself.

"Anneta? Yes of course, she's Paola's sister." I answered, not telling him about the fact that I had asked Anneta many times about the Auditore brothers, when she had come to visit her sister.

"Paola." Ezio said, and chuckled quietly. "She taught me how to blend in with a crowd and how to pickpocket while you were gone." Ezio said, he seemed to think that it was for no use, but still was grateful for the help.

My mouth dropped once again.

"You've been outside? The guards would have taken you down if they'd seen you!" I said.

Ezio all of a sudden rose to his feet, towering up in front of me to his full length.

He looked like giant in my tiny little room, and I felt like a child.

He brought the hood down and watched me with dark eyes.

"Yes I was outside. Why do you care about what I do?" Ezio seemed to get frustrated and somewhat angry , which I knew that he eventually had to become.

It was a part of the process with dealing with the death of a loved one. I knew myself how devastated I had been back when my father died, I had wanted to kill Uberto but since I was a young girl, I couldn't do anything to express my feelings.

"Because I know how you feel." I said, feeling tiny as ever.

"How could you possibly know what I feel? I watched my father die today, alongside with my brothers! I watched them die because of that pig Uberto! I have to take care of my sister and mother without even knowing how, and my father only left me with unanswered questions! How could you ever know how I feel?" He hissed to me with his eyes looking deeply in to mine.

Something inside of me snapped at that moment, and all of a sudden my mouth was moving, spilling out words that I had kept inside of me for so long.

I hadn't told anyone about what had happened with my father and brother, even though most of those who I met had seen my father die and heard about my brothers disappearance, it was a scandal that gave people something to talk about still after all these years. But since I myself barely understood the whole situation I rarely spoke of them at all. And my mom hadn't been able to look me in the eyes ever since father died, I suspected that she blamed me, all though I couldn't figure out what I had to do with his death.

And so now, when I had a man in front of me who actually asked me about how I knew how he felt after the death of half of his family, I couldn't help but to spill it all out. And I did so quickly, like I was afraid that my breath wouldn't last until I had got It all said.

"Because I know what it's like to lose your family! My father too died of hanging from orders of Uberto, my brother disappeared and have been ever since. My mother doesn't speak to me, even though she lives on the other side of the corridor!" I pointed towards the door to make my point clear, I then looked down at my feet before trying to catch his gaze with mine. "I live at a brothel Ezio, I have nothing to live for. That's why I wanted to help you, because I know that you still have a chance for a good life. You still have your sister and mother who loves you deeply, I myself have no one to keep me alive but myself." Once it all was said I blushed because of how I was complaining

Suddenly Ezio's facial expression changed, something in his eyes blinked past, remembrance. He seemed to know now that he had seen me before.

He didn't say anything about my heart spilling, and we were quiet for some time.

I shifted my weight from feet to feet as I waited for him to speak.

"I have met you before, seen you talking together with Cristina and the other girls." He said then.

I grabbed a curl from my hair and twinned it around my fingers as I looked down towards my feet.

Mentioning Cristina was something I was more than unwilling to do.

She had hurt me, and I knew that this friendship wasn't going to get rebuilt, neither the friendship I had with the other girls. My heart seemed to hurt by the thought that I now didn't have a single friend in this world.

Cristina and I had talked for only split seconds after the hanging, where I had asked her if she wanted to meet Ezio, since he was hiding in my room I figured that he would want to see a familiar face.

She had told me no and that he was just as much of a traitor as his father was. And that Ezio was a coward for not standing up to get hanged together with the rest of his family. I had told her to do something highly inappropriate and probably impossible to herself, something that was extremely unusual for me to say, to which she answered to by spitting me in my face.

I had spent the rest half an hour by the lake, trying to wash off my face as well as the memories and the salty tears.

But now Ezio had started asking about her, I couldn't tell him not do so. Ezio disserved the truth, and that was what I was going to give him.

"I don't doubt that, she was my friend." I said, to which his eyebrows went upwards.

"Was? Is she all right? Has anything happened to Cristina?" He asked worryingly, even stepping quickly towards me as if that would make my answer come out quicker.

I shook my head and swallowed, holding my hands up with the palms facing him in order to calm him down.

"No, she's fine. But Ezio, she believed in Uberto. She wishes nothing to do with you." I said.

If Ezio got hurt by this answer, he didn't show other than to snap his jaws together and stand quiet for a while, clenching and unclenching his fists.

I bit my bottom lip, perhaps I should've told it more gently.

"Thank you for telling me, if you ever come across her in the future…" Ezio started but as I shook my head his voice seemed to fade out.

"She's no longer a friend of mine. I slapped her and she spat in my face, she called my father a traitor as well." To leave out the part of how she said Ezio was a coward seemed as the best option, it was better for Ezio to not know about it.

I didn't know why, but I felt as if Ezio would've done it, he would have jumped up on that stage and ordered them to kill him as well, if only somebody had told him that he would be a coward for not doing it.

Ezio turned quiet, and then sighed.

"Very well. I will have to seek up my mother and sister, we're leaving Firenze." Ezio said then, his tone flat.

He tried walking past me but I put my hands against his broad chest to stop him before he could leave.

"Leave, now? No wait!" I said, Ezio looked down on my hands while raising his eyebrows, I blushed.

Slowly I removed my hands and hid them behind my back, mostly in order to stop myself from doing something more embarassaing.

"Please, you need sleep. It has been a long day. You and your family must be exhausted, leaving can wait until tomorrow. Feel free to take over my bed for the night." I said while stuttering and blushing and nodding towards my bed.

Ezio turned around to look at it and then to me.

He smiled briefly.

"May I ask, what's your name bella?" He said. My cheeks turned red once again.

"Ofelia, Ofelia De Luca."

"Madonna Ofelia, I will forever remember your kindness towards me this day. But I have to leave, the guards won't rest until they catch me, and so I will not rest until they can't find me. It's safer that way." He became serious as he picked up his sword which he had laid down upon my bedside table.

He slid it in its shield and then brought the hood up again.

"I have to keep my family safe."

And with those words said, he walked past me and towards the door. I bit my bottom lip, clearly there was nothing that I could do to make him stay. He was strong minded, yet some practice would clearly be needed, in order to make him able to keep his family safe as he wished to.

"Wait!" I said and spun around to see him, he had his hand on the doorknob, but stopped to look at me.

"Where are you going after this?" I whispered to him, in case of someone outside of our room could hear as the door was open an inch.

Ezio exhaled roughly, as if he didn't want to think about the time that had to come.

"To see messere Leonardo, Paola said that he could help me with some things. After that I will go after Uberto, and kill him. My journey will continue to my uncle Mario in Monterrigioni, and that's as far as my plans go. And you, will you stay here as a courtesan?" He asked me.

I couldn't help but to chuckle.

"To dream about another life is foolish." I said with a bitter smile and inhaled.

"_**Wait, do that again Melanie!" **_

_**I was confused when the lady called out to me. Wasn't I supposed to shut myself out, I thought to her.**_

"_**Yes you were, but you just made Ofelia take a breath all on your own. You controlled her actions. Try it again, you're making progress earlier than anyone has before." Though being incredibly confused by her enthusiastic voice , I did as she told me and tried inhaling without using my own body as the target for the inhale.**_

_**And Ofelia's chest rose up and down slowly, I felt myself fill up with satisfaction, finally I was close to get to control her body.**_

_**That was good, usually it took about at least two hours inside of the Animus to do such a small progress.**_

_**I stopped feeling like a big blob attached to Ofelia's mind only, and felt some sort of a string attaching my mind to her body as well.**_

_**A deep breath came out of her body, steady this time.**_

"_**Brilliant Melanie, you're doing progress! But for now, don't steer her body, this is only a memory you have to know, not change."**_

_**Change? We never changed their lives, which was too risky. Was that what doctor Vidic had meant when he had told me that my task would be trying?**_

_**I hoped not, changing the ways of time was extremely dangerous and could cause extreme differences in the presence.**_

_**But as I thought about it, in hope of the engineer answering me, my questions weren't being heard, so I stopped trying.**_

_**I did as she had said before, and this time it was even easier than before to melt into Ofelia's mind.**_

Ezio looked as if he felt bad for me, because I didn't seem to have a happy future in front of me.

"Paola talked about a creed, about a Brotherhood of Assassins. She told me my Uncle knew more, I wish to become a part of this Brotherhood as soon as possible." Ezio told me in a low voice.

The Creed, I had heard Paola talk about it before.

"You should join it too, to have a purpose in life. But if not, I will make sure to come visit you when my work has been done." He said with a vague smile.

I smiled back and nodded, I would appreciate something as small as someone visiting me at this place, I would feel like at least somebody cared.

But quickly I shot the thoughts away, Ezio would have other things to worry about than to think about me, other women and so on, a courtesan as myself didn't have the luxury to hope of getting a man's attention, at least not for more than a night.

"A brotherhood, it sounds as something only for men, but I will consider it. Goodbye Messere Ezio, take care."

Ezio actually smiled to what I had said.

He then nodded towards me, a small gesture but it was enough to let me know that he now counted me as someone that was on his side, someone who knew the truth and that he now knew that he could trust me.

The door closed behind him and I sat down on my bed side and let out a sigh.

Truth was, that I actually had been thinking a lot about that Brotherhood, it seemed so wonderful to fight for freedom and the right to be you.

And now that Ezio had told me to join it, I was certain that that was exactly what I was going to do.

I had to learn many things in order to become one, I knew that, but it seemed like the only right thing to do in order to have something to do with my life.

I couldn't live my whole life as a courtesan, to me that wasn't a life.

I slept like a baby that night after deciding what to do. And the morning after, the news about Uberto's death reached the brothel.

Now I was assured that Ezio would live and get through this, which was a relief, but now I also knew what I myself was going to do.

The fact that Ezio had survived the death of his father and brothers, assured me that there must be some sort of hope for me as well.

I was going to train in order to become an assassin, Paola would help me of course, and in time, I would become one of the greatest Assassin's that this world had ever witnessed, I could feel it.

It was my destiny, it was as clearly as the sun rising every morning. By joining the creed, I would have something to live for, a purpose to fulfill. And what difference did it make if I didn't succeed? I had nothing to lose.

I was looking for Paola about help in training as soon as I had gotten up from my bed the next morning.


	7. Taking Over

"_**Now you know the basics, such as the reason for why Ofelia wanted to become an assassin and why she knew Ezio. Now it's time for you get into action, to take control over her body completely. I have connected everything from your mind and abilities to Ofelia, and since you're already an excellent fighter, everything you are able to do and that you know about assassinating, will be heightened by the abilities and extraordinary skills that Ofelia had. You may pick up some Italian along the way as well, but that's normal. But remember Melanie that I am watching your reactions, heartbeats etc. on this monitor, and I would appreciate if you remembered yourself that Ofelia and Ezio and everybody else that you will meet during this session, are dead. So don't get carried away as you clearly have been until now." The engineer said to me with a concerned voice, which irritated me.**_

_**I was only doing my job, and I knew that they were dead and so on, to think about me otherwise and letting me know is humiliating me, I thought to her.**_

_**I could hear the engineer chuckle quietly.**_

"_**Ok, ok I will send you to the next memory. And I will contact you when the hard part begins. Start controlling Ofelia when I say so." The engineer woman seemed concentrated as I was ripped away from the memory and thrown into the other.**_

_**This time it was really easy, I thanked my engineer and could hear her chuckle again before the new memory started.**_

I clenched my hand into a fist and the hidden blade slid out from its shield inside of the brace.

My other hand met the blade to trace my fingertips over the tip of the sharp glistening blade.

A smile played over my lips as I watched the blade shine in the lights of fireworks above me.

It was beautiful. Perfection formed as a silver blade, dangerous and beautiful, the exact same that people said about me if they knew about my reputation, if somebody lived long enough to spread the word that is, a chuckle slipped from my lips.

My boots that were designed for men, but in a smaller size, echoed against the walls in the alley as I walked towards the plaza were the festive activities were held.

I was confident, safe inside of my own body, and only relying on myself.

I had been this way for about five years now, yes five years had passed since Ezio had talked me into joining the brotherhood, five wonderful years of training, working and serving justice.

And it surely had been my destiny to join the Brotherhood, I had never felt better about myself than I did now.

Paola had trained me well, but after two years in her hiding and persuading ways to assassinate somebody, I had to learn more, far more. Even though Paola had been an excellent teacher, she didn't teach me how to protect myself if the plans didn't go as, well, planned.

So I had La Volpe as my tutor for the following two years, he taught me the skills I had up on roofs, the skills I had with a blade and many other things that I will never be able to thank him enough for.

He had taught me so many things, even though he didn't want to take me under his wings in the beginning, La Volpe couldn't be slowed down by a skinny and sometimes clumsy little novice, but he made sure that I would never again be mistaken for a beginner again.

He helped me reach rank eight as an assassin, and for those who knew about the Creed, I was formally a Veterano.

But as an assassin, I usually tried to make sure that no one who knew who I was stayed alive, at least the ones who weren't a member of the brotherhood and until now my identity was still unknown for the Templars and I worked to keep it that way.

The only thing that they knew about me, was that I was a killing machine, just as dangerous and merciless as I was beautiful.

I retracted the blade as the alley turned and I could see the plaza appear in front of me.

It was one of those masquerades, that the ruling dodge of Venice always threw to the people In order to celebrate god knows what.

My hand went down in to my bag as I grabbed the masquerade mask, black with white sparkling lines at the tips.

I put it to my face and tried not to get frustrated by the way that the mask made me feel limited.

Voices from the plaza as well as music floated towards me as the wind came by, I smiled briefly.

This was it.

I was here not only because I was dragged towards the big crowds where I knew that leading Templars or others who simply were evil, greedy, selfish and so on, often wandered around in, but because I knew somebody else who was here as well.

Ezio Auditore, now known as a leading Assassino, highly feared as a killer but admired for his will to make this world a place that we all could live in, and to have revenge for his family, rumors said that he himself would be here in order to kill the Venetian dodge because a friend of his had wanted him to, he had taken a contract, so to speak.

In order to become a true Assassino, I had to be learned by one of the greatest, I had to become ones apprentice. Sure I had been by Paola and La Volpe but I needed just a few more years of practice, guidance, until I became a true Assassino.

And I knew the exact right man for the job.

I made sure that my corset was placed alright and covering at least a bit of my chest, mostly in case of somebody trying to fight me off, I didn't want to show off my chest during a fight even though that would make my opponent distracted.

My black corset with white laces along the edges was my companion in crime, I wore it every time I was out to kill, it was the only thing that followed me where ever I went.

I didn't know why I loved it so much, maybe because it was a gift from Paola, maybe because it reminded me of my life as a courtesan and how I never wanted to be a courtesan ever again?

I didn't know why, but I loved it.

Along with it I wore a black courtesan skirt which I had stolen from a courtesan that had troubled me, she had been my way and had to be dealt with. And for her to "give" me the skirt weighed up the fact that she had been troubling me with stupid questions about who I was when my target was standing not far away from her.

The memory made me smile, I hadn't known that I had actually stayed my blade from the flesh of innocent when I took her down, since she turned out to be my target's personal courtesan.

I hadn't brought many weapons with me to this gathering, partly because of how many guards that would react if they saw a woman carrying around a sword, but mostly because I hadn't had the time to fetch my weapons.

The only thing I had was my dagger and the hidden blade, which I had with me all the time.

As I thought about the dagger I bended down to check if it still was in my boot, and as I bended down and stroke my finger against the sharp tip I became calm.

Also I had a smoke bomb, a splinter bomb as well as two cherry bombs which I hid in a shoulder bag that bumped against my hip as I walked.

The masquerade mask I had stolen from a young lady who had taken it from her face as she watched the fireworks, she had been so slow in reacting when I snatched the mask from her hands that I had started giggling while melting together with a passing crowd. When she finally realized that it was missing, I was long gone and so was her precious mask that if I had to guess I'd say it was expensive.

When I found out from another assassin that the masquerade was the best place to find so many Templars gathered at the same time and place, the party had been only an hour away.

Therefore I hadn't had the time to go back to the church which I lived upon and get my sword and arrow and if anything went wrong I would be defenseless in many dangerous ways.

But I didn't hesitate, I was never afraid to lose a battle, or to get killed.

I had learned that death was only another adventure, and when the time was in for me I would be sent to this new adventure, but it wasn't in my hands to decide when I died or not. It was faith.

I finally walked out into the crowd, and quickly blended in together with a group of people that were casually wandering around.

La Volpe had taught me that I always needed to check my surroundings before working up a plan on how to take me to one place to another in order to get to my target. So I watched the big crowd of laughing, shouting people around me to identify if there was danger close to me.

They were all so happy, watching either the Harlequin's or the fireworks going off high above our heads.

None of them knew or were even aware of the shadows walking around in the dark that I could quickly identify as of my own kind.

Some of them were sneaking over the rooftops, some walking in the crowds just as me.

This was a big plaza, one of the biggest that I had seen in a long time, and I must say that I liked Venice very much because of this.

Longingly I watched a man jump from one roof to another, I'd much rather be up there.

But the skirt I wore would make climbing too difficult, so I had to stay on the ground for once, which I didn't like. Nothing, even as small of a weakening as not being able to climb if I was discovered during my assassination, made me frustrated.

I didn't like the feeling of being weakened, it was something that didn't work for me anymore. Not since the days back at the brothel, those days were long gone and I was never going back to feel as useless and miserable as I did then.

I knew that even without armor, heavy weaponry or access to escape I would still get this job done, I always did.

Besides, I wasn't the one who was going to kill someone, I was just simply the girl who had to escape with the man after he had killed someone.

I walked out of the crowd with a self-confident smile playing on my lips, I knew that people were watching me as I strutted down the street, they usually did.

I tried to tighten the buckles that kept the brace, where the hidden blade was now hiding inside of, in place. As I watched I admired the meaning it had and how beautiful it was, visible and shining with its beautiful metal, it did and would definitely attract some attention.

But since this was a masquerade I figured that nobody would take enough time to look at it, when whine and entertainment was in reach.

"Look at that beautiful creature!" A man shouted, clearly he had already been taking a few to many glasses of wine, behind me and by the heads that turned towards me I understood that he meant me.

Flattering, I thought with a smile.

"_**Now Melanie! The transmission is completed, all of her memories up to this point are now yours, and you will do just fine." As the woman from Abstergo spoke to me I knew that I had to quickly take over Ofelia. I don't know how to explain this, how to tell you exactly what it felt like, since all I know is that it hurts badly. You're ripping every single piece of you, your mind and your soul, away from your own body and then pushing it into the body of somebody else. And the fact that Ofelia's mind and soul is still in her body, strong and bright, forces me to melt together with those as well even though she fights me off. This time I knew that I was screaming, since every time I did this I usually screamed, it was like some sort of mechanism inside of me, to scream in order to feel like I belonged to my own body for a while before being ripped from it.**_

_**But it did go well after a while, and when every final part of my mind and soul was ripped away from my own body I got melted together with Ofelia quickly, and the pain disappeared like it never had been there.**_


	8. Finding Ezio

_Ok so I don't know if this whole part got messy, but just an FYI here's the info you need to know.  
>Now that Melanie has taken over Ofelia's body, she can hear and know what Ofelia feels or thinks, which is in order for her to know what to do as Ofelia in order not to mess with the past and mess things up in the future, so there you go. Now I hope you enjoy! Btw, let me know what you guys think about this, misspellings, questions about the characters and basically what YOU think about my writing, thanks! <span>_

I opened my eyes, I mean hers, as I started to hear the crowd that Ofelia had been standing in only seconds before I took her place.

I knew that this time would be trying, that I would feel more like Ofelia than myself, but since she had been such a confident young woman I figured that this would be a relief from my own shy and always angry and miserable self.

And it truly was, because when I finally took in all of her emotions I no longer felt like the old pale and skinny Melanie, I felt like a healthy self-confident woman who wasn't afraid of anything.

A smile spread across Ofelia's lips that were now mine, it felt amazing.

I looked up towards the sky and could see the beautiful night sky covered with shining bright stars and fireworks that went off now and then, It was all so beautiful. The colors, the lights, the music and different scents, it was amazing.

It felt amazing, I felt alive again, and stupidly I even had to do a little pirouette in order to show my happiness, which the man who had screamed after Ofelia seemed to appreciate, judging by his loud laughter.

I didn't care, I looked down at my clothes, the brace and even the black and the low cut corset I looked and traced a finger over just to feel the material of it all.

Even though I hated Vidic for too many reasons to count, I had to thank him some day for making this trip possible for me.

But soon enough I had to realize that I was there for a purpose, me and Ofelia had a work to be done.

I had to find Ezio Auditore, and according to what Ofelia remembered Ezio would be inside of the white castle, where all of the important guests such as the dodge that Ezio was informed to kill were enjoying the party.

I looked down the street towards the entering stair to the castle to see that it was guarded by four heavy armed guards with their swords ready.

I bit my lip, it would be hard to get pass them without killing anyone. But not for a lady dressed as a courtesan.

I started walking towards the entrance with my skirt getting caught by the wind, not until now when the wind drew by I noticed that Ofelia's long black hair was let loose and flying in the wind, which was unusual for young ladies at this time.

I smiled, Ofelia was a strong minded woman now, who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to get it. With her mind strengthening my own, this task would be easy.

I started walking faster towards the entrance and as I walked by a salesman, selling fruits and wine, I grabbed an apple from the table and threw it to my other hand to eat it without risking unsheathing my blade and stabbing myself in the face, that would have been a tragic way to end Ofelia's life.

I took a bite of the apple and chewed happily, the taste of fruit was something that I usually forgot since they almost never served fruit back at Abstergo.

As I got closer to the guards an idea formed inside of my head, and since I had Ofelia's quick judgment I acted out on the idea before I had the chance to think it through.

I simply just figured that it would work out no matter what I did. I liked this way of thinking, my plans on running away from Abstergo I've kept to myself without acting out on them for about six years now, quick judgment and relying on myself that I would make it wasn't one of my stronger abilities.

I interrupted my thinking about the past and what to come when I had finished this session, and instead I focused on the now and watched the guards while they were starring with hawk eyes out on us in the crowd.

I figured that if I wasn't careful they would see me and arrest me for trying to hurt them, so when I got close enough and behind two elder and long men I threw the apple hard through the air and jumped in to a crowd of people before the apple hit its target.

I could hear how one of the guards swore as the apple hit him, and when I shot a glance toward him I saw how the apple had been smashed and was now splattered over his armor.

A smile played once again on my lips, because the apple had distracted them all and they were watching their companion as he took off his helmet and watched the mess.

He swore once again, and now I went out from the crowd and approached them with my hands on my waist.

"Good evening gentlemen." I said while smiling seductively, this was just a few of the tricks Ofelia used that Paola had taught her, when learning her about the ways of the courtesans out on missions.

I wanted to stay this confident even when this session was done, but I knew that pretty soon more and more of my own feelings would take over Ofelia's and I would become myself more and more.

I thought about why Ofelia was this confident, what had made her the person she was today. And as I searched her memory I found a special one that she clearly replayed in her mind many times in order to feel confident.

"You're Beautiful Ofelia, use it as your most dangerous weapon." Paola had said, to which Ofelia had blushed, I smiled by the thought of Ofelia blushing now.

I hoped that there was some way for me to become confident, because even though I hardly spent any time inside of my own body, I'd like to make those few days less of a living hell.

The guard closest to me swung around to watch me when he heard my voice, only to hit his companion on the arm to get his attention. Once they both looked at me they started smiling sheepishly which made me giggle.

Now I had to figure out what to do or to say to make them either let me in or look away as I sneaked pass them.

I went for the thing that usually had worked for Ofelia during her time with Paola.

"I am a part of the…" I stopped in my sentence and took a step closer to the guard closest to me and lowered my voice a little, starring into his eyes as I talked. "Entertainment for the night, I'm late and lost track of my friends." I said.

The guard swallowed nervously by how close I had seemed to have gotten, and he shot a glance toward the man I had hit with the apple.

"Miguel, should I let her pass?" The guard asked him, even his voice was shaking a bit.

I fought the urge to giggle, he was just too ridiculous, his way of acting around women made me think that he didn't do much else than work.

The guard looked up from his helmet which he was trying to polish while the two other guards were out in the crowd, trying to find the one guilty for the crime of apple throwing.

He looked me up and down, I myself got uncomfortable by his gaze but Ofelia's mind strengthened me and I stayed on the spot, smiling towards him.

Clearly he made the judgment to believe what I said and nodded.

"Of course, can't you see what she works as? No offence Madonna." The guard added to me, I let out a giggle and shook my head.

"None taken Messere." I smiled to him.

The guard closest to me stepped to the side and I traced my hand over his shoulder, it seemed as if I was just flirting but really I was checking if his armor was thick and from what material it was. It was thick metal I thought and tried to not sigh as I went up the stairs and walked through the big open doors to the castle.

If all of the other guards were wearing the same kind, it would be hard fight them off if something went wrong.

As I entered the big ball room my eyes nearly popped out, it was so big, so beautifully constructed, with white marble and decorations in gold and red satin all over the place.

In the far right of the room there was a big beautiful staircase which led up to a walking aisle surrounding the room, as I watched people mingling and chatting, laughing and dancing to the music that street musicians were paid to play beside the stair case my mouth dropped open.

They all looked so beautiful with colorful dresses, capes and masks, it was all so breathtaking that all I could do was stand in the doorway and watch with shining eyes.

Up high in the ceiling there was a chandelier that together with candelabras lit up the room and created a dim and mystical lightning.

I heard Ofelia's mind speak to me as if she watched it all together with me.

"_**They're so happy and beautiful on the outside, but on the inside almost all of them are pigs, bastardos just like Uberto, I wouldn't trust even one of them if so they gave me all the money they owned."**_

I felt bitterness from her side, she really didn't like the upper classes, but that was understandable.

She belonged in the lower classes, together with thieves and courtesans because of her past, but she'd much rather belong to them and be happy to fight for the right thing than to become one of those posh people that spent their lives destroying others.

I had gotten so distracted by the beautiful room that I hadn't taken in the people in it, I hadn't even started looking for Ezio and the dodge and if I missed the assassination Ezio would be long gone faster than I would get out through the doors again, and he would be gone possibly forever.

Wow, I sounded like Ofelia, I thought as I stood on my toes and watched the big crowd.

There were at least a hundred people in there, crowding together in the center of the room even though it was so big, people were walking up and down the staircase in order to greet each other and chit chat about God knows what.

From the corner of my eye I saw something red and gray pass by too quickly to be one of the guests, quickly I turned my head upwards to watch the aisle where people were leaning against the railings, holding their glasses in their shaking hands as the red and gray shadow had passed.

There, once again I saw the flash of red, more to the left than before, and then the top of a hood, it belonged to a man who to me stood out in the crowd because of his quick walking and broad shoulders, covered in armor thicker than the guards had.

But to somebody without trained eyes, thought nothing about this strange man, other than that his silhouette made the man seem mystical and quite handsome.

I shook my head, remember how you are inside of somebody else's body, and that probably was somebody else's thoughts, I reminded myself.

So I had identified Ezio, now all I had to do was to keep my eyes on him and possibly stop him before the assassination in order to get more time to talk to him.

After all, this party would probably keep on for the whole night, the killing could wait a few hours.

And who knew, if Ezio agreed to Ofelia being his apprentice, maybe he would give us the honor of killing the dodge?

I pushed people gently aside as I made my way through the crowd and towards Ezio, my heart actually pumping faster in excitement.

"_**Finally I will see the man who rescued me when I was trying to rescue him, a thank you should be in its place." **_Ofelia's thoughts echoed inside of my head, I smiled. Whether the thank you should come from her or his lips I couldn't tell, but by judging on the way she now seemed to be I thought it was Ezio who would have to say it first.

I lifted the side of my skirt even if it was unnecessary as I came to the stair case, my hand landed lightly on the handrail of the stair and I started walking upwards.

My eyes were glued to Ezio's silhouette, he was walking quickly, I couldn't help but to wonder why he seemed to be in such a hurry.

I mean, as a very well trained assassin and killer, shouldn't he know that people would start to notice him sooner or later because of his appearance?

As Ezio hurried towards me I figured that he would walk down the stairs, but instead he walked over to the aisle on the other side.

"That was strange." I muttered to myself as I stepped away from the stairs and started to follow him.

I walked quickly pass people who stopped their conversations and looked at me as I passed by, women giving me offensive stares which indicated that I was a disgrace, and men starred at me as if I was something on their plate. Ofelia seemed satisfied with the attention but I on the other hand wasn't very used to it, it felt odd to get noticed for my looks other than that they recognized me, they had heard of me and knew that I was the famous girl "with a purpose".

And to be honest, it felt quite good as well, to be noticed for my looks I mean, even though it wasn't _**my**_ looks they saw, it was Ofelia's.

Ezio had just gotten to the end of the aisle, which seemed like a dead end, when he suddenly opened a door I hadn't seen before and went through it.

"Excuse me." I said as I pushed a lady aside in hurry to get to Ezio, If the Dodge was in this other room than I had much less time to talk to Ezio than I had expected.

The lady made an appalled noise behind me but I didn't stop, instead I finally got to the door.

It was a big black door in metal, which meant that it lead to the outside, with a surprised little grin on my face I pushed the door open, both Ofelia and I preferred the outside.

The first thing that caught my eyes was the fact that the moon was full and shining brightly up high in the sky.

It was a balcony that the door had led to. A balcony that was beautiful, big and seemed to be in a gap in the middle of the top floor of the house, when I stepped out onto the marble floor and spun around I saw the black roofs stretch out above the walls surrounding the balcony.

I turned around once again and there he was, standing in the dim moonlight.

Ezio.


	9. Persuasion In The Moonlight

Ezio was standing by the black balcony parapet, leaning his elbows and forearms on it and seemed to be gazing up at the moon.

I couldn't help but to feel how happy and amazed Ofelia was by the sight of a full moon, She didn't know why but she really loved the moon, perhaps it was its mysterious light that could shine up the city when fires wasn't enough? All she knew was that she loved it and I felt myself how its breathtaking beauty almost made me tear up. I hadn't seen a real full moon since I was a kid, and even though I knew that I was inside of the animus, this moon seemed so much more for real than other times I've seen it while being in the Animus.

As I let out a sigh of amazement, I saw Ezio's shoulders twitch at the noise. Slowly he looked over his shoulder, his eyes in shadow because of the hood.

He was still wearing the same clothing that I had seen the day of his father and brothers executions, only now it fit perfectly. He was wearing a cloak over the shoulder that was new, it as well as the blood red band that was tied around his waist were swaying lightly in the mild night breeze that drove pass us.

"And so we meet again, Ezio Auditore Da Firenze." I spoke with a delighted voice tone.

Ezio didn't seem that surprised of how I knew his name, maybe he wasn't that good at keeping his identity a secret?

No he was not, judging by the fact that at least two other assassin's had knew where he had gone to.

I walked over to his side, making sure to keep a little distance while tracing my finger over the balcony parapet, I looked up at the moon while waiting for him to speak.

I was still wearing the masquerade mask and I could see him at the corner of my eyes, and tell that he was watching me and trying to guess who I was.

This was amusing, to stand so close to the young and not as experienced Mentor Auditore in the renaissance Italy, I had to admit that this was a time that I had wanted to visit for quite some time.

"And who may you be, beautiful?" Ezio spoke, with a much darker voice than the last time I and Ofelia had seen him. There was something in his voice that made me think that he too had changed a lot during the five years that had passed. He sounded more confident, yet not mature just yet, he had a teasing tone in some way, flirty too.

I giggled quietly and turned my head to look at him, my heart skipping a beat as I did.

Finally I got to meet the famous Il mentor, I thought, even though I knew that Ofelia's longing to meet Ezio again was the reason for my/her heart to act silly.

"Messer Ezio, don't you recognize your savior?" I said theatrically hurt but with a smile placed on my lips.

Ezio straightened himself and let go of the balcony parapet, instead he brought down his hood and took of a golden mask that he had been wearing.

**His face has not changed a bit since the last time I saw him, although he has grown a mustache.** Ofelia's thoughts echoed inside of my mind as well as a girly giggle, and all of a sudden her longing for Ezio became stronger, she had truly missed him.

He was watching me from head to toe, with one eyebrow raised and with a smile on his lips, he didn't seem to recognize me but seemed to like what he saw.

"Well, Ezio." I said and brought my hand up to examine the arm which the brace was placed on.

A quick twitch with my wrist and forming my hand into a fist as I did, the blade unsheathed itself. Ezio looked amazed, surely he hadn't met many women with a hidden blade. I twisted and turned my hand and arm to watch the blade from different angles, shooting glances at Ezio every once in a while to see his expression.

"I'm quite hurt, since you promised to always remember me." I said playfully. Ezio chuckled to this.

He wasn't frightened at all about the fact that I had unsheathed my blade, which he should be since he had no idea who I was, even though the blade showed that I was a member of the creed he had no idea if I was a traitor or not.

"Madonna." He held out his arms and smiled charmingly. "Surely it would be quite foolish of you to order me to remember every pretty face that I meet, I cannot remember them all. If you know my name, then you surely should know that about me." He said.

With a smile I brought the blade back and lowered my own arm only to cross my arms over my chest.

"Because a face such as mine, is something you meet every day?" I asked with a smile, indicating that I myself thought of myself as a beauty.

Ezio brought his arms back down and gave me a smile, he did no longer seem to be in such a hurry as before.

"Well Madonna, that mask of yours does make it difficult for me to admire your beauty." He gestured with his hand towards my face, sounding playfully.

This was it, now Ezio would finally see who I was, who **Ofelia** is, I remembered myself as I looked Ezio in the eyes.

This was a big moment for Ofelia.

"Very well then." I said and brought my hand up to my face, slowly I removed the mask and brought my chin up as I watched Ezio.

At first he didn't seem to remember me, but as little time passed his face finally lit up, a smile spread over his lips.

"I remember you! You are that girl, Ofelia?" He said, I nodded relieved that he remembered my name.

"Ofelia De Luca is my name, I've been looking for you for quite some time now." I said with a cheerful voice.

**He remembers me! **I could hear Ofelia cheer inside of my head. If I didn't know her as well as I did I would've thought that she had a thing for Ezio, but that couldn't be true.

From Ofelia's memories I picked up a special one, a thought that she remembered herself of quite often.

"**The most dangerous and self-destructive thing to ever do, is to fall in love, it will break and hurt you ten times worse than a sword would ever do. Ezio's love for Cristina taught me that."**

She was a clever girl, I had to admit as I went through her thoughts.

Love was something that she didn't want to waste her time on, in that way we were alike.

Ezio was looking surprised, perhaps by the fact that I had been looking for him. Suddenly he had reached out his hand and grabbed the arm to which the brace was set on.

"Have you joined the brotherhood?" He asked confused.

I nodded. "Yes, I took your advice about it, and it surely has given me a purpose in life." I said with a smile.

He too was wearing a brace, but not only on one arm but on both, the right to use two hidden blades was only reserved for the most trusted of Assassins, or those who had earned the rank of Master Assassino, which meant that Ezio was trusted by those of our own kind.

"**I had only heard rumors about Ezio's second hidden blade, it is truly amazing to see that these were true."**

Ofelia's amazement of this second hidden blade was contagious and I too was amazed.

Not many of my ancestors had been good enough to earn one, it was amazing to finally see someone who clearly was trusted.

This meant that I, and Ofelia, indeed could trust Ezio.

But warning bells went off in my head as I thought about trust, Ofelia thought that no one was to be trusted but herself, since everyone that her own father had trusted had eventually turned on him, this was not to happen to her.

"Well Ofelia, I am pleased to hear that, so you have left Firenze and your life as a courtesan behind you?" He said and as he spoke he leaned back with his lower back against the balcony parapet, his forearms resting against it on different sides of him.

He looked at my clothes, obviously questioning why I was still wearing courtesan clothing, but I just smiled.

"Yes I have, there was nothing left for me there. And as for the clothing…" I took a minute to look at it for myself. "I don't know why I wear it, but it does help me, it draws the attention of my targets to something else than my blade." I said with an innocent smile.

"I understand them for being so blinded." He said with a quick grin.

The old Ofelia would have blushed by this, since what Ezio had said clearly was meant as a compliment, but instead she just felt better about herself.

She surely had changed much since she last had seen Ezio, and all was thanks to him.

Ofelia thought very highly of Ezio now, because of what he had done for her without knowing it.

"I can't thank you enough for letting me hide in your room, that day when my father and brothers got executed." Ezio still seemed to hurt by the loss of a big part of his family, his voice darkened when he talked about it.

Both Ofelia and I knew that feeling well.

All though, I hadn't known my family that well and therefore thought that I couldn't miss something that I didn't remember.

But Ofelia did, she remembered her father too well, his voice, his kind face, his thundering laughter.

He had been everything to her and her brother, he had been their Idol, a father, a teacher and a friend.

It was his death that had changed her life, in many bad ways. Her brother was still missing, and she had not spoken to her mother since she told the other girls that she was leaving the Rosa in Fiore.

She had left out the part about why she was leaving, she had only said that it was in order to become something much greater than a Courtesan, although Paola knew the truth.

All that was thanks to Ezio, he was the reason why her life had changed in good ways for once.

Ofelia didn't feel that she had done so much for Ezio, other than help him hide, but he had told her thank you, now it was her time to return the word.

She wasn't used to say thank you, surely La Volpe had taught her to always be thankful towards the ones sharing her belief, but he too believed that no one could be trusted other than you.

"Oh there is no need for thanking me." I said with a quick smile when remembering that I had to answer Ezio.

Now was the time to tell him that he had helped Ofelia as well.

But just as I was about to open my mouth, Ezio did the same.

"So you said that you have been looking for me, what can I do for you Madonna Ofelia?" Ezio said, and I lightened up.

Now was the time to ask him to take me under his wings, to let me become his apprentice.

I mean Ofelia and I!

I could feel Ofelia's heart flutter inside of our chest, this time it wasn't her feelings that created the flutter.

I felt stupid for thinking I instead of Ofelia, I knew that it wasn't myself who was going to be trained by Ezio although I would experience it, it wasn't I who lived in this century and it certainly wasn't I who was as free and living as Ofelia was.

That, the whole free and living part, was what reminded me that I wasn't Ofelia.

But to always remind me that I was Ofelia got frustrating after a while, so instead of always calling her body hers, I from now one called it my own.

Because for a little while, for three weeks I would get to be her and to live the free and exciting life she had lived.

Before I opened my mouth I chose my words carefully, I was not to mess this up.

"Yes I have. Ezio when you left I spent these five years as an apprentice for both Paola and La Volpe, they have trained me and helped me raise my rank and I have now become a Veterano. But in order to become greater, to reach the higher ranks I have to become an apprentice too someone of a higher rank than me, someone's who's trusted enough for a second hidden blade and who may never disobey the laws of the creed." As I spoke Ezio seemed less and less looking forward to hear what I had to say.

I swallowed harshly and looked him in the eyes, holding my head high.

"And that's why I have come to you." I ended.

Ezio laughed shortly before trying to stop and I fought the urge to drop my mouth open like a broken shutter.


	10. The Past Five Years

Was this for real, was Ezio laughing me, in reality Ofelia, right in my face because of what I was asking of him?

I felt like cutting him over the cheek with my blade, kicking him in the plays were men seemed to bend over because of excruciating pain, I felt like doing something that would show him my anger.

These strange and sudden bursts of anger I knew both Ofelia and I shared, and when we now were mashed up as one, these anger issues only became greater.

Which wasn't very good, the anger issues I mean, judging by the fact that Ofelia knew too well how to use a blade and that she wasn't afraid of using one either.

"I am sorry Ofelia, I truly am. That was rude of me." Ezio said as he tried to not burst in to laughter again.

"By all means, Ezio. Laugh at me, but I am quite sure that you weren't paying attention. I have been trained by _**La Volpe**_, as well as _**Paola**_, two whom you know what they are capable of doing, and what they are able to teach. Surely I wouldn't slow you down." I said with a serious tone in my voice, something Ofelia didn't use very often.

She was used to flirt into getting what she wanted, to not be able to do this, or to at least know that no matter how beautiful she was Ezio wouldn't agree to what she was asking for, was frustrating.

Paola had taught her nothing about how to talk someone into something when not using the way she looked as a weapon.

And La Volpe only taught her to use her actual weapons as weapons when trying to get what she wanted.

But that Ezio wouldn't agree to me if I wasn't being serious, it did tell me something about him.

Ezio took his job very seriously, at least that's what it seemed, it meant that he would be an excellent teacher, if he only wanted to become one.

But as I thought about it Ezio was here with a mission which he now, while trying not to laugh at me, had seemed to forget all about.

"I'm not doubting you, I am sure that they have taught you many things, since you've earned the rank as a Veterano. But I simply can't work with anyone than myself, I work alone in the shadows, a girl like you would only attract attention." He tried to flatter me, trying to calm me down, but I was too angry to care.

"So then use me as bate! Ezio, think about how it would be with someone like me by your side, someone to draw attention from you, someone to finish the job If somebody attacks you before you get to finish it yourself. You'd hardly have to keep an eye out for me, that I can do myself, but just teach me how to become the greatest assassin that I can be." When I spoke I told him everything I knew that Ofelia felt, I even let an inch of sadness slip into her voice.

She would be broken if she wouldn't be able to reach the top, this was something that she devoted her whole life to, she would not stop until she was the best.

Ezio looked at me, he did seem to try to understand me, and he even seemed to try to look at it from my point of view.

But he failed.

"I would gladly like to help you, but I work alone only." He said darkly.

My heart dropped.

Ezio didn't seem to care, which was upsetting me and Ofelia greatly.

After all that Ofelia had done for him, he still rejected her like he could do everything by himself.

I swallowed harshly, trying not to show how disappointed I was all though my heart ached.

"Very well then." I said.

Ezio looked at me expressionless as I put the mask back on and gave him a last glare.

"Good luck." Ezio said as I turned away from him.

It took all the strength in my body not to turn around and break a bone or two in that man.

"Paola sends her greetings, she had told me you have become self-focused and ignorant, I had hoped that she was wrong but it turned out to be I who was wrong to hope." I said, my voice sounded as if I wasn't hurt at all, it sounded as if it didn't matter to me anymore, but I dearly hoped that Ezio would think about my words.

I walked towards the door again with the wind blowing through my hair. I was furious and heartbroken at the same time because of how Ofelia had lost her hope in becoming anything greater than what she was.

I admired her though, for how she tried to comfort herself and not to lose her hope.

Ezio was a man who thought that he could do everything, all by himself, that he alone disserved the honor of becoming one of the greatest.

_**Very well then, I will prove him wrong, someday somehow.**_

I walked back down the staircase, not paying any attention at all to the people surrounding me with their stinking breaths and sweaty foreheads.

Ofelia didn't care about them, flees was what they were, or leeches, sucking out every ounce of joy from everyone who tried__to stand up for themselves.

She hated them, she hated Ezio's foolishness as well.

Instead of going back the way I had come from, I walked down from the staircase and entered a corridor to the right of me that was nearly empty of people.

To the left the corridor turned and continued, to the right there was a door that was closed.

Out of pure curiosity, or perhaps in hope of finding the dodge before Ezio, I walked over to the door and tried opening it.

It was locked.

A quick glance over the shoulder to make sure that the two giggling women who had been standing in the corridor had disappeared behind the corner, I leaned my head against the door.

But it was useless, the loud voices and the terrible noise that the street musicians created was too loud.

I sighed, there was no point for me staying at this place any longer, and I could tell that Ofelia thought so too, so why couldn't I just walk away from there?

There was something that held me back, if it was Ofelia, or perhaps myself who hoped to see Ezio again before leaving held me back I couldn't tell.

Suddenly the woman from Abstergo started speaking in my head, at first her voice crackled like she was talking through a phone with bad connection, but after a while I heard her loud and clear.

"_**An**_** hour and a half has now passed, and so far so good. But really Melanie I get afraid when I see how you care about what Ofelia thinks and feels. Don't look so angry you know I'm just looking after you, it's my job!" **Clearly I had not been aware of that I was now making a grimace.** "Any way I just wanted to tell you that you can't leave the castle just yet, there will be action after the fireworks have gone off, just wait and you'll see, over and out!" **The lady confused me when she constantly told me not to care about Ofelia, personally then sure I felt sad for Ofelia, but I knew she was dead, there was nothing that I could do about that, all that I cared about in real life was to get this session done and move on to the next.

Then I remembered that the lady had been talking about fireworks, my eyebrows went up.

Hadn't fireworks gone off all night?

Right then it sounded as if guns were fired off in a symphony, instinctively I crouched as if somebody was going to shoot me down, but then I understood that it was the fireworks.

**There will be action after the fireworks have gone off, **the lady had told me.

I tried to smile even though Ofelia wasn't that positive.

I started walking to the big ball room and then turning to the hall and out through the big entry door once again, watching the sky as I walked pass people that just like me had hurried outside in order to look at the fireworks.

It was quite beautiful, the colors and so on, but I was a bit distracted so to speak.

My thoughts kept wandering to Ezio, I wondered if he was going to complete his mission now or later.

I sighed, what did it matter, he obviously wasn't interested in having an apprentice, especially not one that was a woman.

This did bother me and Ofelia extremely, as well as the fact that he had laughed me in my face, and was not even afraid when I had unsheathed my blade in front of him.

It was as if he didn't believe that I could be dangerous, that I could hurt someone.

Oh well, I thought as Ofelia had, we'll prove him wrong.

As I watched the fireworks go off high up in the sky, I couldn't help but to notice a black silhouette on one of the houses across from the castle.

It was someone that I recognized, not only because of this foolish decision to sit on a visible rooftop when people were looking up for once, but also by his choice of clothing.

He wore a cape, quite similar to the one that Ezio wore, but in light blue, and the band around his waist was deep blue, his hood was up but I still recognized him.

No, to say that it was I, Melanie who recognized the man on the roof was wrong, it was Ofelia who recognized him.

It was one of the others who had joined the creed about the same time as she had, he was her one and only competition even though they were about twenty new members who competed against each other.

Because there was always a small competition between those who joined the creed about the same time, the ones who teach us encourage it just like they have always done.

The competitions weren't about counting who killed the most or who were the quickest, all though those kinds did exist, but the competitions Ofelia only thought about was the ones where they competed about who of them all would do the _**greatest**_ kills, who of them would climb ranks at the fastest pace and would become the greater than the others.

This guy was talented, he was stronger and more sustained than Ofelia, he had been trained well but she was quicker and cleverer.

This became clear to me very quickly because of how foolish he was to not care about hiding himself.

He took risks, such as not keeping his identity a secret, just like Ezio, which was just a small step from breaking one of the creeds rules, or at least that is what Ofelia thought.

Ofelia was unsure of what to think about him other than she hated the fact that he was a threat.

She hadn't mind to try to make new friends when she joined the brotherhood, she believed that it wasn't necessary when she could handle things all on her own.

Sure, she thought Ezio was foolish for thinking that he needed no one else, but Ofelia felt that she really could handle things on her own, when she had finally been taught how, that is.

The others had been fascinated by her, because of her choose in clothing and so, but she thought of them as imbecilles and nothing else but threats if they proved themselves good enough to actually be a competition.

To join the creed is harder than you think, at least it was to the others who had to find out about the creed without any help, and had to find one of the headquarters all by themselves.


	11. The Highest Rank

Ofelia had Paola to take her to one of the headquarters, there she was introduced to twenty others who weren't trained at all, and together they sat down with Teodora Contanto, Bartolomeo d'alviano, Paola and Antonio de Magianis to speak about the Brotherhood, the laws of the Creed and the meaning of it.

It had been a magical night in Ofelia's eyes, and she had listened to them speaking for hours.

Because of how they all lived in different cities, and had their own business to take care of, they had meetings once every twice month.

They had gotten to choose which one of the teachers that they wanted to become apprentices too, and of course Ofelia had chosen Paola.

Either they could have chosen to follow Bartolomeo, and learn how to go into battle, using swords and armor and without "all that unnecessary crap, that only makes you look like a circus monkey."

Teodora taught the ways of the courtesans just like Paola, and Antonio taught the ways of the thieves.

Paola did at first take care of four other novices, but later on she let go of the rest, claiming that they were "useless" and so Teodora took care of them and Paola only had Ofelia left.

Usually after two years, the apprentices had climbed enough ranks and it was time for them to choose another teacher, but instead of learning from one of the other teachers in the group, and having to share its attention, Ofelia had decided to follow La Volpe since she believed that he was a greater teacher than the others.

After the years that had passed since he started training her she still believed she had been right, since she had the highest rank of them all.

When two years had passed once again it was time to choose another teacher, only this time someone who wasn't one of the usual teachers, you had to find a Teacher who worked on his own but who still belonged to the creed, and so that was what had gotten Ofelia to Ezio after spending one last year with La Volpe.

The times when they all met up again after two months, was for training against each other and giving signed contracts of the missions you have completed to the teacher you first had so that the teacher can keep track on your progress.

But to meet the others when she wasn't forced to do so wasn't something that Ofelia liked to waste her time on, and to do it didn't make her happy.

The others Ofelia still after five years hadn't talked to, their names she hadn't kept in mind, other than this boy who always seemed to want to talk to her when they fought against each other or even walked past each other at the headquarters, other than that she usually succeeded to avoid them.

His name was Cristiano Bianchi, he had reached rank seven the last time Ofelia had heard of him, and was now a Guerriero, a warrior_._

He had been trained firstly by Bartolomeo d'alviano, and so he had learn his skills with swords.

He was strong, quick with a blade and thanks to Antonio de Magianis who had become his second teacher he was also quick on his feet.

But he didn't know how to persuade someone, how to make them turn their attention to something else even when the blade was visible to them.

And he knew nothing about being careful or alert, which Ofelia clearly knew better than him.

I watched him as he sat there, the wind passing him by and the fireworks putting him in the shadows and only enlightening his back once in a while.

Clearly he saw me as well, and recognized me, Ofelia, even though I was wearing the mask.

He slowly raised his hand towards his hooded face, and while holding three fingers to his forehead he did a quick salute towards me, I only frowned in answer.

Suddenly he brought his hood down from his face and stood up quickly, towering up into his tall length.

I blinked confusedly as he started walking towards the edge of the rooftop while sheathing and unsheathing his blade as he went, it seemed to be a habit of his.

Where was he going to go? On that side of the building there was nothing else but water waiting for him underneath, both I and Ofelia thought as we watched him.

And that's when he suddenly made a graceful jump out into the air, bringing his arms up and turned in the air so that he now was falling head first as he went.

"Idioto!" I hissed under my breath as I saw him disappear.

_**None of us are able to swim, water is our only threat. **_Ofelia thought dryly as she saw him disappear into the water and out of our sight.

I shook my head, Cristiano was according to Ofelia foolish but not stupid enough to commit such a suicide, clearly he must've learned how to swim which was going to become a problem to me and Ofelia since neither of us knew how to swim, therefore he had taken an advantage over us.

"Could this day possibly get any worse?" I thought, both because of how I myself felt and how Ofelia felt.

She didn't like to worry about somebody taking her place as the leader, even though she could easily get it back by simply learning how to swim.

Only that such a thing needed a teacher, and to ask someone to help her learn such a silly thing was insulting and ridiculous, at least according to her.

The fireworks thundered in my ears as well as the crowds cheering and screaming, and It wasn't until the woman had run pass me that I understood that it was something with her screaming that didn't match the others.

"Guards, Guards! There's an Assassin in the castello! He killed the dodge!" The woman screamed terrified as she ran pass me, my eyes quickly went to her, while she ran away from the assassin that she had spoken of, before I spun around to watch the guards over by the castello entrance.

It was Ezio, no doubt about it, I thought with a sigh as I watched the guards shouting to each other before hurrying inside.

The fireworks were still going off high above me, and everything I saw turned into the colors of the fireworks before it went black until the next one went off.

Suddenly a man next to me yelped as he suddenly fell to the ground with a black then red, caused by the fireworks, silhouette falling on top of him.

_**He must've climbed over the rooftop, clever. **_Ofelia thought dryly.__

"My apologies Messere." Ezio chuckled as he quickly got back to his feet and left the terrified and surprised man on the ground with his mouth wide open.

Ezio adjusted his clothing as he finally looked up from the man on the ground and seemed to search the streets for a way out of there.

His eyes went to the rooftops, but as I followed his stare I saw perhaps ten archers who had taken over the night shifts and were watching us all, if he tried getting up there they would shoot him down before he had been able to reach the top.

It was a miracle that they hadn't noticed him as he had jumped down from the palazzo's ceiling.

Suddenly, Ofelia's hope had gotten a new boost and her excitement filled her body, and thereby spreading inside of me as well.

Since our minds were connected I realized what she was planning and decided to act on this, since what she believed was the right thing to do was what I had to do in order to not change anything.

If I did something that Ofelia hadn't done, hadn't wanted, I would've changed the way things would end out in the future, even if I did something little as perhaps not throwing that apple on the guard, because it would set the wrong things in motion.

And therefore I did what Ofelia would have done if I wasn't the one controlling this body.

And I decided to do so in exactly the right time, because right then, with Ezio starring down the streets and with the archers watching us all like hawks from above, the guards inside of the castello must have realized that the killer had in some kind of way been able to get passed them.

The four guards that had been guarding this entrance were now accompanied by ten others who had probably been guarding the other entrances, and they seemed furious.

"Spread out! He can't have gotten far!" One of the guards shouted as he rushed passed me, clearly going to signalize to the archers as well about the happenings.

Ezio seemed to swear as he saw the guard running towards a ladder standing against one of the walls.

Now was the time for me to come to his rescue, I thought as he brought his hood up, a satisfied smile spread across my lips.

Quickly I stepped towards him and grabbed his arm, just as he was about to run towards the opposite direction that Ofelia had come from earlier that evening.

Ezio turned around towards me as he felt my fingers tighten around his lower arm.

He seemed confused, and even brought his hood down as he watched me with a frown.

I grabbed his hand and smiled and he kept on watching me with suspicious eyes.

"Just walk with me." I whispered in his ear to make him understand, as I hooked my arm with his.

We started walking from the crowd just outside the castello and towards the street where Ofelia had come from earlier.

"Why don't we go that way, my friend is waiting for me by the water." Ezio said questioningly and lowering his voice at the last part of his sentence, he pointed towards the street that he had been about to run towards, I shook my head with a smile and patted his arm as if to say that he was silly.

"I know that, I'd say everybody who lives by the creed knows about your whereabouts Ezio. But there are guards everywhere if you go that way, another assassin had told me about his plans on causing a scene over there, follow me instead. I know where to go." I looked him in the eyes with a confident smile playing on my lips.

"Or would you like to end up like that man you just killed?" I said while watching the crowd.

"If the assassins know my every move or not doesn't exactly worry or concern me." Ezio said, mostly we were just trying to keep a calm conversation going as we went, to not seem too strange or attract any attention.

Though that was quite hard not to, to attract attention I mean, because every woman watched Ezio as he went by with his broad shoulders and charming smile, and every man watched me.

I myself felt like the stares from husbands and men were getting awkward and it felt as if their eyes would burn spots on my skin where ever they pleased to look, Ofelia on the other hand was only pleased to know that they enjoyed watching her.

"Madonna, don't think that saving my life will change my decision, I still work on my own." Ezio suddenly said as we went by people.

I shot a glance towards the rooftops, where the archers were standing with bows and crossbows at the ready.

Even though both I and Ofelia had hoped to change Ezio's mind, we weren't that surprised to hear him say it. If Ezio wasn't out for an apprentice, we simply had to find someone who was.

Only that would take some great time, and Ofelia had already wasted half a year searching for Ezio and then staying for two months now at her hiding place in Venezia while waiting for Ezio to arrive, all this time she had been without a teacher.

"I wasn't planning on changing your mind, but helping you. All though if you feel that having me near is upsetting you I'll be happy to leave you in the hands of faith." I answered coldly, yet with a smile on my lips.

I directed us towards the alley, yet there was about a hundred meters left before we were there.

We were in the middle of the big street, which made me feel stressed because of the amount of guards that were watching us.

Ezio chuckled to what I had said.

"My apologies Madonna, if I have offended you I beg for forgiveness, it was not my intentions. I just wanted to make it clear that I won't take you as my apprentice." He was speaking in an amused set of voice, and I shot a glance at his smirking face and rolled my eyes.

We walked past people in a hurry, but not running because that would catch the guards' attention.

Some turned to look at us, some didn't even realize that we were there as we pushed our way through the crowd together.

"Apology accepted, but please don't remind me of it or else I will leave you here." I warned to which Ezio simply chuckled quietly to.

"Did you leave anything that could lead them back to you?" I asked, mostly because that was a question that Ofelia used to ask herself after an assassination, something that Paola had taught her.

Ezio was quiet for a while as he shot a glance over his shoulder towards the guards.

They were speaking to the remaining guests from the castello, probably trying to hear if anyone had managed to spot the killer, but it didn't seem to pay off.

"Other than that woman who had seen me when I had killed the dodge then no, nothing can make them suspicious about me." Ezio said calmly.

And the woman who had seen him was probably already home, considering how quickly she had run by me before

But I shouldn't have jumped to such a hasty conclusion.

Because suddenly one of the men's around us had caught sight of us and had seen something that neither I nor Ezio had thought about.

"There, grab that man, he's got blood on him!" As we heard the voice from behind us we both stopped for a moment and turned around to see who the one to tell was.


	12. Running For Your Life

It was the man who Ezio had jumped down upon, and he was now standing straight with a woman at his arm and with the other raised, pointing towards us.

It took a second for me to realize that the guards had heard the man despite the fireworks still going off high above us, and they all were watching us now.

I scanned the crowd outside of the castello as they all seemed to turn around in order to watch us.

So there we were, standing hand in hand, as all hell break lose.

It was one of the guards who started it all, by pointing towards Ezio and me and shouting loudly with his rumbling voice.

"Hurry, Get him!"

People started panicking, screaming and running away from us as if we carried the plague.

The fireworks stopped going off by then, and as the exploding sounds stopped torturing my ears I heard how Ezio swore under his breath.

My heart fluttered inside of my chest, how could he be stupid enough to forget something as simple as cleaning off the blood or simply hiding his arm behind the cape?

"Blood?" I asked as I hoped that he had a perfect explanation, but it was foolish to hope.

Ezio brought up his other arm and examined the blood that was sprayed over the metal brace and his fingers, my mouth dropped open as I saw it.

He gave a quick and surprised chuckle as if he hadn't known that it had been there this whole time.

"Well I suppose that _is_ quite conspicuous." He said, to which I answered to by spinning us both around and now running back towards the alley.

I growled loudly and gritted my teeth's with frustration as we now started to push people aside.

"Out of my way!" I spat as people kept popping up in front of me, I shoved them to the side or to the ground as I went by, furious about getting caught yet excited by all the happenings that now occurred.

Ezio let go of my hand in order to be able to run correctly, and I shot a glance at him.

He was looking upwards towards the archers who all had their bows and crossbows at the ready, he swore once again.

"They all have seen us now, I'd say we have about twenty or more guards after us." Ezio said and sped up, I quickly caught on and raced passed him.

The walls of the alley closed in on us and the street under us darkened, it was nearly impossible to see anything below of our ankles, yet still I could hear the splashing of water under our feet's and the soles of our shoes grasping against pebbles as we kept our high speed.

"Well then maybe they actually have a shot at taking us down." I breathed.

Ezio chuckled in agreement.

"How could you possibly forget about something as easy as keeping such an important assassination clean?" I breathed questioning to him as if I couldn't believe his foolishness.

Which I actually couldn't, at all. Ezio was a master, a true assassin who was trusted enough for two hidden blades, yet still he was careless enough to forget to do something as simple as wiping off the proof from his hands?

Our breaths became faster as we continued through the alley, I could hear shouting from behind us and soon the archers would be upon us as well.

This was the first time that Ofelia was close to getting caught. Yet still we both were excited by the tension of it all.

We were assassin's, we are used to work in the shadows, and when this changes we're caught off guard sometimes, like now, but also seeing an opportunity to play with the guards before killing them.

At least that's why Ofelia was excited, I reminded myself, because I, Melanie, Is not a free assassin and this is something that I myself isn't exactly going through.

"Well the lady who saw me didn't get me that much time, and she started screaming before I had even stabbed him which made the whole kill messier than usual." Ezio explained, though sounding as if he found it all very amusing,

I rolled my eyes, he was really not the famous mentor yet.

He was still an inexperienced womanizer, but according to what the Templars had to say about Ezio, he would always be a lazy womanizer but with luck.

Oh my, I hope Ofelia doesn't fall for him, I thought half worried.

Because to tell the truth, if I have lived in their time, it wouldn't have taken much to make me fall for Ezio.

If I believed in love, that is.

I snorted in answer to Ezio's statement, and then took a few seconds to slow down and look back at the guards behind us and the guards on the rooftops.

"So, are we just going to run or are we actually going to kill some of those guards?" I breathed to Ezio as Ofelia's thoughts remembered me of the bag bumping against my waist.

Ezio shot a glance over his shoulder towards the guards.

It was pathetic really, only the fastest ones and who wore the lightest armor were almost catching on to us. But they still were about at least a hundred meters behind, and they were already getting tired.

"Maybe a few, just for the amusement." Ezio said with a smile as he started to slow down.

"I have an idea, but then we have to speed up because this can get messy and attract more attention." I said as I started to search my bag while still running.

Thanks to Ofelia's quick judgment, I didn't hesitate or think about the risks.

Finally, I thought as Ofelia's memories told me that I had found the right bomb.

I grabbed the splinter bomb wrapped inside of a shield of leather, they all had different materials around them in order to not only keep them from exploding but also for Ofelia to remember which bomb it was she was holding.

I quickly peeled of the leather from the bomb and shot a glance back again.

"A smoke bomb, an interesting choice." Ezio commented amused.

I chuckled shortly.

"No Ezio, this is a so called splinter bomb, designed to kill or injure targets upon impact, it can disperse enemies with its deadly shrapnel. La Volpe gave me these when his friend had been to Constantinople and brought these back as a gift to him, but he didn't find them of use and gave them to me. Watch and learn Ezio." I said as I suddenly stopped as if my feet suddenly were nailed to the ground.

I quickly spun around, switching hands to my throwing arm, and smiled expectantly as I did.

The guards seemed to get surprised because of my actions, but it all only happened in a matter of seconds therefore they had no time to react or defend themselves, like the mouse they ran into the arms of the cat.

I jumped towards the wall beside me and put my foot against the wall, only to kick off higher into the air to the side and swing back my arm and throw the bomb as far as I could.

The bomb flew through the air and I figured that I had at least a few more seconds left before it detonated.

When I landed on the ground again I crouched and went for my knife hidden in my boot, quickly I grabbed it before looking up towards the rooftops above.

I could see about three archers' who had been able to locate us, and I could only bring down one by myself.

"Ezio, aim at the archers!" I shouted over my shoulder with an expecting grin.

With another grin I aimed towards one of the closest to us, and threw the knife into the air.

It hit its target perfectly right on the throat and the guard fell down towards the ground and by my feet in the matter of seconds once again, and the two other guards fell down quickly after them with knives through their chests.

Quickly I bent down over the bodies and grabbed the knives, the blade slide out of its shield of flesh with a splashing sound.

I then spun around to grab who seemed to be a surprised Ezio by the hand, this short time he had with somewhat widened eyes been watching me decide the faiths of about five guards in under a minute.

_**Poor Ezio, this must be a hard day for him.**_ Ofelia thought amused.

"Run!" I yelled as I finally grabbed his hand and managed to turn him around.

We ran for our lives as I heard the bomb detonate behind us.

And just as the bomb did so, we had reached the ending of the alley and we were out on a big street again, I dragged him with me to the side of the wall so that if some splitter of the bomb didn't hit us. There were hardly any people on these streets, since most of them stayed by the castello, but those who had been there quickly ran away by the sight of a man with blood on his hands and a woman with three bloody knives in hers.

And mostly they ran because of the loud noise caused by the bomb, I thought as a smirk crossed over my lips.

The bomb had given us some time to think of a way out of there.

To the right the road led to a dead end, also known as the water, and to the left and just a few hundred meters away the church awaited, the safe house.

"They cannot swim, we could swim underneath that bridge over there and they will think we have disappeared or possibly drowned." Ezio said, breathing heavily and pointing towards the water, I myself was sweating and water didn't seem like a bad option right then and there.

Too bad though that neither I nor Ofelia knew how to swim.

I felt my cheeks burn but the blushes never reached the surface before I protested.

"No, I have a better plan and a place, they won't be able to get us if we hide there, just follow me!" I hissed as I started to run once again.

I reached down into my bag and grabbed one of the cherry bombs shielded with clothing fabric and threw it back and towards the water where it landed on the ground and exploded, creating a loud noise which would attract the guards' attention and hopefully make them believe we went that way, at least for enough time to give us some space.

"Do you live in Venetia now?" Ezio suddenly asked as we ran, I couldn't help but to chuckle.

"Do you really think this is the right time for a conversation?" I asked.

"Why not?" Ezio smiled.

I shot a glance over my shoulder and saw that my cherry bomb indeed had made them look towards the water, but it was a matter of seconds before they understood that they had been fooled, we had to speed up.

"Very well then. No I don't live here, it's only a temporary hide out, but now that I have failed my mission I will be moving on soon." I said, panting because of the warmth and the speed we held.

I tried to run faster until I realized that I already was running as fast as I could, which meant that we were getting tired and slower.

Ezio didn't seem to notice this though.

"And your mission was to become my apprentice, I assume?" Ezio said.

"Yes, it didn't turn out the way I expected, but never mind. I'll find a new teacher, someone better." I said, trying to keep my head high.

Ezio had hurt Ofelia, and thereby me as well, he wasn't going to get away from that.

Yet He chuckled amused and didn't seem to care about my tries to insult him.

"Madonna, I don't think you will be able to find someone better."

I frowned, somebody had to get this man's head out of the clouds.

"I doubt that, there are many assassin's out there who would gladly accept me and who are clever enough to clean their hands after a killing."

Even this time he didn't take it personal.

"You have only seen me once in action, too bad though that you won't see it again."

"Thank god for that, I would personally kill you myself for pure stupidity If I had to witness another failed mission." I snapped.

"I have to remind you Ofelia that I did complete the mission, though it turned out not the way I had planned." Ezio said it as if getting chased by guards and having to run for your life wasn't so bad.

"Hurry up, they are getting away!" A man behind us yelled and I figured that it was one of the guards.

"Shoot him idiots!" Another man yelled.

"Any more ideas?" Ezio said, now he seemed to be getting a bit nervous.

"Yes, run!" I yelled.


	13. Safe House

Arrows started flying and hitting the ground right behind us and If we hadn't been by the church's backside by then, we would have gotten killed.

"It's just around this church." I breathed.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins and sweat trickled down my back, Ofelia knew that death could await her in a matter of seconds but surviving every second that passed only made her more excited, she felt invincible, a fearless creature who couldn't be stopped by mankind.

It was hard not to catch on to her excitement.

A short laughter slipped through my lips as we got to the entrance.

Pillars holding up a beautiful ceiling and walls framed the small entrance door, it was a big tree door that stood open long into the night for lost souls except on celebration nights like this, but Ofelia figured that it worked for escaping souls just as good during the night if they knew where the key lay hidden.

I quickly grabbed hold of Ezio's arm and with a surprised noise he let me drag him with me and behind one of the pillars.

With my arm against his chest I pushed him backwards towards the wall and placed myself only inches away from him.

The pillar was big enough to hide me and the wall that Ezio's back was pressed against hid him.

I placed my finger over my lips to make him stay quiet although we both had to calm down from the running.

Our breaths came out quickly but quietly and the guards wouldn't hear it because of how loud they were themselves.

Ezio was at least a head and a half taller than me and while looking down on me with a confused grin he seemed still to be confused by what we were doing there.

Ofelia's recognition of the church and feelings of being safe other than her memories of the place made me realize that this was the place she had spent most of her days at when not training or sneaking around in Venice.

It was a place that she liked, although she didn't believe in God and knew that Templars had ordered for this church to be built, she still liked the quiet whispers of visitors during the day and how the church was lit up at night by visitors who had left candles for their beloved and gone ones.

Inside of me I could feel how Ofelia was torn, she enjoyed having Ezio this near, she still thought of him as charming and handsome and she was weak for men with such self-esteem, yet still she was mad because of his refuse of having her as an apprentice and thought that he walked around with his head in the clouds.

I on the other hand felt extremely uncomfortable, I had never been this close to another person before.

Well, ok so I admit that my trips inside of the animus has made me experience kissing and such things, but usually then I ordered the engineer that worked with me to send me to another memory, since I thought that those experiences were unnecessary.

Not to mention extremely awkward, picture yourself walking in on someone's personal life when they are together with someone in _**that**_ way, and you can feel what they feel, hear what they think at that moment… yeah, it isn't so nice.

But there was something with this trip in the animus that felt strange. Everything seemed more real, perhaps because I now actually took the time to remember all the things that Ofelia was experiencing instead of just letting the engineer write down important aspects and thoughts.

"Search the place, they cannot have gotten far!" A man shouted out on the streets, and footsteps from about ten men disappeared away from us.

Ezio caught my gaze.

"Do you think they have left?"

I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed a hold of his collar and leaned back to look past the pillar.

Ezio's hand grabbed my upper arm to give me support.

I saw the guards continue down the road and archers had either climbed down from the rooftops and followed the others or turned back.

"Yes they have gone." I said and stepped back and let go of his collar.

I spun around and crouched down to search the floor after the key.

My fingers found the little loose stone cobble and lifted it and picked up the keys underneath.

"So this is your hiding place?" Ezio said as I locked up the door and opened it with a creaking sound that felt like home to Ofelia.

"Yes, you're welcome to stay outside if you like." I snapped.

"Oh no, I was just thinking that it's a very…." Ezio looked around as he entered the church and I closed the door behind him, the room was lightened up because of candles that the priest must have lightened before he went home for the night, Ezio's eyes went up to the cross hanging over the altar in the front of the room. "Religious place." He ended.

"Well, even for an atheist this place is safe, the guards do not seem to like attacking you when you're hiding here." I said and directed to him to follow me to the aisle at the far right of the room, in the ending of the room there was a ladder that led up to a loft that was inside of the tower, also known as my room.

"No of course not, because in the end they all are led by Templars in some way. The church is a holy place to them as well."

I looked around in the church, Ofelia thought of the place as beautiful, a safe place where no one could hurt you, but holy? No.

"You wait here, I'll go get something to drink and wash of that blood with." I said and pointed to Ezio to stay by the ladder.

I quickly stepped up on the altar and grabbed the bowl of holy water with both hands, when I turned around to face Ezio he chuckled.

"Holy water?" He said, I nodded.

"Do not complain, at least it is water, and blessed too." I said as I nodded to him to climb up the ladder.

"Ladies first." Ezio said with a smile and made a gesture to make me give him the bowl.

I shook my head.

"I won't give you the pleasure of seeing what's under my skirt, now go." I said impatiently.

Ezio chuckled as he started climbing the ladder and up to my room, not wanting to argue with me.

"Now hand me the water." Ezio said from above, I lifted the bowl with some effort before he managed to reach it and lift it as if it was nothing.

I inhaled for a moment. Ofelia and I both felt that beeing a man sometimes must be way easier, they didn't seem to have anything standing in their way, they could do whatever they wanted and did not need to worry about skirts.

I finally started climbing up to see how Ezio reacted to Ofelia's room only to find the man setting the bowl down by the bedside table and walking over towards the armor that Ofelia had hung up upon a mannequin doll, a gift from La Volpe when he had kicked her out.

The weapons she owned laid spread out on a working table together with paper sheets and pencils and small cans of ink by the window, flickers of light made the metal shine in the dark light.

The only window and light source besides a candle burning on Ofelia's bedside table was closed and outside I could see the archers standing on different rooftops and talking to each other, they seemed to have given up on the search after us.

Which was good, we would get a night of rest and then Ezio could continue his travel while Ofelia started figuring out what she was going to do.

The only bed in the room though was a mattress that Ofelia had gotten from a brothel nearby.

It had been given to her as thanks for assassinating a man visiting the brothel who had very often gone away without paying, not to talk about insulting the girls every time he left.

Ofelia knew how the girls felt, even though her life as a formal courtesan was over she still remembered those horrible nights when she had to work, those disgusting pigs who smelled of wine and sweat, to help the girls was something she felt she had to do.

And now all the girls from the brothels nearby knew about her and only had to ask her for help in exchange for things that Ofelia needed such as pillows, bedding, food and a few blankets.

I was staring at the blankets lying neatly on the bed with a smile while going through the memories of Ofelia from when she helped the courtesans, it seemed to be quite often.

"You wear armor?" Ezio asked and I looked up from the bed, he was standing by the mannequin, feeling the material with the tips of his fingers.

"Only when it's necessary, it depends on whether it is a man or a woman who is the target, if I'm just going to deliver messages, eavesdrop or steal information I take this." I pointed towards what I was wearing and Ezio let his eyes wander over my clothing.

Ofelia made me straighten my back and look at him with confident, I myself on the other hand wanted to run away or cover myself with the blankets lying on the bed.

I wasn't used to having males watching me as if I was something they could eat, it only made me insecure which was the opposite to how Ofelia reacted.

"I understand." Ezio said then.

Without further means I laid the knives on my working table and kicked of the boots.

I then grabbed the bowl of water and brought it with me towards the window, with my elbow I swung the window open and then made the bowl balance on the window frame.

While washing my face off with the water I was amazed by how Ofelia's face felt like my own already.

I didn't even know what she looked like, other than what she herself had seen while watching herself in mirrors.

When the water in the bowl finally was still I was able to see her reflection.

With a sigh of envy I let my fingertips trace the line of her red lips, her hazel brown eyes and her healthy and light pink cheeks.

Her hair tumbled down around her face in black heavy curls that continued down and stopped over her waist.

Her skin was tanned from working underneath the burning sun but not a single scratch or spot destroyed her perfect face, which was different from the way I was used to see my ancestors.

She was beautiful, strong, healthy and confident, the opposite of everything that I was, or maybe what I had become.

Suddenly I did no longer seem to have anything in common with Ofelia, other than perhaps the color of our eyes and hair.


	14. Confessions

Five years ago in Ofelia's life, we almost looked and acted like twins, but now she seemed like a whole other woman.

Other than our eyes and hair she could have been anyone and I wouldn't have noted her as a Cortado if I had passed her by back at Abstergo, but on the other hand Susanne was less alike me, so maybe it was I who didn't match my relatives?

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of metal meeting tree with a loud thud, I turned around to see that Ezio had shot one of Ofelia's throwing knives across the room and it had dug into the old tree wall, together with five others.

It was a habit of Ofelia's, that when she woke up she threw a few knives across the room, in some sort of assurance that even with sleep slowly leaving her body she still was able to hit her targets, that she still was able to protect herself.

I didn't care enough to say anything about his doings.

"You can wash your hands and blade now if you want, I'm finished." I said and went to sit down on the bed.

I grabbed the bag that still hung upon my arm and opened it, the bombs fell down onto the bed and the materials that they were hidden inside of slid open.

I carefully picked up one of the remaining bombs and turned it around in my hand thoughtfully, this one wouldn't explode unless I lit its fuse.

By the wall spiked with knives was a tiny casket where the others lay, carefully embedded with hay so that they wouldn't explode.

They were quite many, La Volpe's friend had been very kind to bring back so many, especially since he hadn't had any idea how to handle them and had lost three fingers on his left hand as a lesson to be careful with them.

I heard the water splashing in the background as Ezio cleaned of his hands and blade in the background as I spun the bomb round and round in my hand while staring into thin air.

Ofelia was calm at that moment, just waiting for Ezio to talk to her or so, but this time it wasn't as easy for me to catch on to her feelings.

I was afraid of what would happen when they were going to sleep, terrified actually.

Ezio at this age was as famous as an assassin as he was a womanizer, and I didn't want to witness a night where Ezio and Ofelia shared a bed together.

I had started to think if the engineer would answer my prayers and send me to a more formal memory if I asked her to do so.

But I shouldn't have bothered getting scared.

Metal landed on the floor as Ezio took of his armor and the hidden blade, he started taking of his shoes when Ofelia started reacting to what he was doing.

I quickly stood up and grabbed the two blankets off the bed and threw them across the room where they landed in a pile.

Ezio looked up at what I was doing and started smiling.

"I take it you won't share your bed with me." He said.

"No, you actually had a chance of sharing my bed with me back in Firenze, but you lost your chance." I confessed and threw a pillow at him which he grabbed before it was able to hit him.

And it was the truth, Ofelia had gladly shared her bed with Ezio five years ago if she hadn't been so scared and shy, and he hadn't been so madly in love with Cristina.

She believed that they could've helped each other forget their own misery. A sigh quickly slipped my lips,

A sigh quickly slipped my lips, oh well Ofelia didn't like to think of the past.

Ezio chuckled as he walked over to the bed, now wearing his pants and a white shirt only.

I quickly fixed his mess with armor and clothing and kicked them carefully not to scratch the polished metal in his direction.

I emptied the bowl by pouring the blood red water through the window before setting it down upon my bedside table.

"Wait, so you mean that you wanted to share your bed with me?" Ezio said while laying down the blankets on the floor.

I frowned and sat down in my bed while watching the candle burn out.

"Ezio, it was almost every girl's dream, and there were only a few of us that actually got the chance." I confessed with a smile.

"Cristina was one." Ezio said with a toneless voice.

I stopped spinning the bomb in my hand which I had started doing when I had sat down again and carefully shot a glance in Ezio's direction.

Remembering his long lost love clearly still got to him, but as I looked over at him he was already tucked in beneath the blankets and calmly gazing up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head.

Ofelia figured that he didn't want to show signs of weakness, typical for males to try to look strong at all times.

I let my fingernails trail the cracks in the bomb as I searched Ofelia's memory for more information about Cristina, but it seemed as if she had suppressed most memories of her past.

She had trusted Cristina and the other girls though, that I could tell.

If something would have happened to them, even before and after the night of Giovanni's and the others death, Ofelia would have done everything to help them.

She loved them, and although she didn't want to admit it to herself, she missed them deeply.

They had been her only family since her mother hadn't cared of her, but still the girls had turned against her as soon as Uberto had started speaking his lies again.

Chills started going up my back, Ofelia blamed it on the cold slipping through the old window but I knew it was because of how remembering her friends and former life hurt her.

Ofelia muttered inside of our head, she didn't like to think about the past or things that made her sad.

"Well, yes. But let's not forget all the girls at the Rosa in Fiore." I said as a try to light up the mood.

Ezio smiled at the memories, obviously catching on.

"The Rosa in Fiore was my third home apart from my own and Cristina's." He smiled, lost in thoughts, until he seemed to remember something else. "Where were you when I visited the brothel?" Ezio asked and shot a glance over at me.

It was amusing to listen to Ezio talk about visiting the brothel so openly, since it's something every man does but can't talk about, at least not at this time age.

I shrugged my shoulders while getting up to my feet again, I leaved the bomb in the tiny casket before starting to lose the tie on the back of my corset.

I glanced over my shoulder as I was standing with my back against Ezio and smiled amusedly.

"Oh I was there, you just never saw me." I said as the corset fell loose.


	15. Out Of Reach

Lol I'm sorry if you guys thought that something would happen there, but noooo ;)  
><span>And i'm sorry but I've been really busy and haven't been able to write that much. But now I'm back on track and here's the next chapter! Hope you all like it, and PLEASE Let Me Know What Ya Think! ;D<span>

I grabbed an old shirt that had belonged to my father, one of the few things I had left from him, and brought it over me as I took off the corset.

I also grabbed a pair of trousers that the courtesans had given me as well and put them on as I took off the skirt, Ezio didn't have the time to see anything that I didn't want him to see.

As I was finished he was lying on the side, watching me curiously as I lay down in my bed underneath the sheets.

"You were?" Ezio asked.

"Yes, but I never wanted to be the one to take care of you. Cristina had loved you and if she ever found out that I had slept with you for money, or even that I knew that you visited the brothel she would have hanged us both herself." I said, regretting it immediately as I mentioned hanging and love.

Ezio's jaws clenched together quickly but he didn't say anything.

Suddenly my cheeks started to feel warm.

Ofelia became terrified as I laid my hand against my chin, it was warm.

_**A few hours together with Ezio and suddenly I am the same insecure little child that I was five years ago, how did I think that I would manage to have him as my teacher for two years?**_ Ofelia thoughts said to me.

My eyes searched after Ezio's and finally our eyes met.

He gave me a humorless smile, but seemed to want to say that it was ok to mention it all.

"Though thinking about my brothers and father's death is painful, I have now accepted that they are gone. It was five years ago Bella Madonna, I won't kill you for mentioning it." Ezio said.

Ofelia was pleased to hear that, but our cheek still burned and I was sure that it was red.

I breathed slowly until the warmth had faded and then returned to the confident Ofelia again.

"I'm pleased to hear that, but I would like to see you try to kill me Ezio, it wouldn't go very well for you. I'm no longer the insecure little girl who saved you five years ago." I said, to which Ezio only chuckled.

From a third person's perspective, I'd say they both thought too highly of themselves.

But unlike Ezio, Ofelia didn't want to admit that to herself.

Ezio knew that he was self-centered, but he also knew that girls usually never got irritated by that. They usually focused on his pretty outside rather than the inside. At least, if I would have been a careless girl living during his time and would've had the chance to meet him, that's what I would have done, I had to admit that.

But Ofelia on the other hand thought that her confidence and self-love was normal.

We fell in silence for a few seconds, Ezio was lost in his own thoughts, perhaps of the past, while I listened to Ofelia blabbering inside of our head about Ezio. She was fighting a battle inside of her own head about what to think of him.

On one side she liked him, she felt that by telling her to join the creed he had helped her to change her whole life and personality. He had gone through about the same thing as she had when younger, therefore they had something in common.

On the other hand, she found him extremely self-centered, ignorant, foolish, stupid and what we in modern days would call a player.

Once again I believed that she didn't want to admit to herself that they were very much alike.

But Ezio was an honorable assassin, and a member of the Creed was automatically somebody she should trust and like.

Too bad though that Ofelia didn't like nor trust anyone other than herself.

Too many bad things had happened in her life and men such as Uberto and others who visited the brothel had scarred her for life. And thanks to the betrayal from her friends and the fact that her mother practically hated her, she couldn't trust or rely on anyone.

I wanted to know more about Ofelia's life before she joined the creed, there was so much things that I didn't know about her past even to our minds were connected.

But since the engineer hadn't told me yet what my real mission was, I could do as much digging in her memories as I wanted to. Since there were no memories in particular that I had to focus on.

But there was a problem, something was wrong.

See, even though I was connected to Ofelia in every way possible, her heart was mine, her body and voice was in my command, I had to push away her mind from mine in order not to get overwhelmed by all of her stories, her thoughts and feelings screaming at me at once, it would cause me to collapse or even worse: die.

Let me put this all in a simpler and less frightening way: think of my mind as a big bubble trapped inside of a round bowl. Ofelia's mind is a smaller bubble outside of mine, and is constantly trying to break in to take over of her own body again, which is the bowl that our bubbles are trapped inside of.

But she doesn't know that, no she's not aware that I am reading her mind or controlling her because I am doing the same things that she wanted her body to do, I am mimicking her thoughts and thereby tricking her into thinking that it's her that Is controlling her body.

But her mind is still trying to fight me off, trying to take back the control but without her knowing.

Anyway, every time I want to pick up a special memory or a feeling perhaps, I have to let her bubble melt together with mine so that parts of her bubble melts together with my bubble, and when I have gotten the memory or the thought I was after, I close my bubble again and can only hear her thoughts and feelings "in the back of my mind".

It's not as complicated as it sounds, at least not now when I have been in the animus for so many times and done it so often.

But as I tried to reach for the memories from her time at the brothel, it was like meeting a wall.

I frowned as I once again tried to break into those memories, tried to let her bubble in and take out the parts of the bubble that held her memories from the brothel, but once again there was the wall.

I gave up, her memories must be suppressed, tucked deeply into her mind and locked away from everybody else including herself.

I turned to lay flat on my back as I gazed up at the ceiling.

"So I presume that you will be gone before I wake up tomorrow?" I said, Ezio took a deep sleepy breath.

"I Believe so, yes."

"Well in that case, it was a pleasure meeting you again Ezio."

"Likewise, maybe we'll meet in the future again?"

That only remembered Ofelia of how Ezio had promised to come visit the brothel sometime five years ago, I smiled.

"Oh I hope not."

Ezio chuckled and even I joined in too, before we both were overdriven by sleep and soon fell into silence again.

"_**I'm fast forwarding you to the next morning." The engineer sounded extremely concentrated as she spoke to me, and now that I had her attention I quickly asked about what she thought of Ofelia's locked memories.**_

"_**I have no idea what she went through, there is almost no information about her when she worked on the brothel, and back in the days when you didn't work for us we had no idea she even existed. But Melanie it's useless to know those memories, Ofelia will according to what we know never meet anyone from her past again." I couldn't help but to feel sorry for Ofelia, since from what I had gathered she had wanted to meet her old friends once more before she died. The engineer saw that I reacted to what she had said and I could hear her sigh in the microphone.**_

"_**You're going to relive the next morning but then I will fast forward you again to two separate memories. After those you will have to work a little on your own because there's a glitch in her memories from the next memory up until the final memory that we want you to go to." I knew that she could sense that I had no idea what she meant, she chuckled.**_

"_**And by that I mean that the glitch is memories that we haven't been able to collect on our own, we have no clue what happened during that time and so you will have to work on your own without me getting involved, do you understand?" I understood.**_

_**I felt the need to ask the woman if she could tell me what my mission was going to be, I mean I knew that I was going to change something, was that going to be when I am sent to the last memory? So there was nothing for me to collect now, no important information to collect that they, the Templars, didn't know about Ofelia or Ezio?**_

_**Somehow I could feel, judging by her troubled silence, that she knew something that she didn't want or couldn't tell me.**_


	16. Gone By Dawn

_**I asked her once again to which she only cleared her throat.**_

"_**I'm sorry Melanie but I am up over my ears with work, according to the heart monitor you're getting extremely carried away with all the things that is happening. You're worrying, being jealous and feeling sorry for Ofelia and once again I have to remember you that she is dead!"**_

_**I had no control over the flinch I did when the word dead past her lips, as if it hurt me.**_

_**She was right, I was getting carried away.**_

_**She sighed, as if she regretted what she had said.**_

"_**I am sorry Melanie… It's just that I know that it's hard not to feel for your ancestors, she's your family in some way. But if you're going to continue with this, you'll fall hard when you will witness her death. Her time is long gone, and there's nothing you can do to change that." Her voice was soft, as if she actually really knew what this "time traveling" did to you.**_

_**I fought the urge to shake Ofelia's head, since my own head was somewhere far away, in another time and place.**_

_**It was right, everything she said.**_

_**I was stupid to feel for Ofelia, or to be jealous of the strength and beauty she owned. She was dead, I was alive. Even though I would really want to be dead rather than living this meaningless life where I did no use, at least not for anyone other than the Templars.**_

_**But it was my duty, at least for now. **_

_**So there was nothing else for me to do than to complete this session, to be a cold shell that didn't care for Ofelia or Ezio until I was back home in my own time and in my own bed, just like I always had to do.**_

_**I thanked the engineer for her time and "peptalk", but asked her for one last thing before I was shipped to the next memory.**_

Ofelia was asleep already, I could feel her mind relaxing "beside me" and her heartbeats getting slower.

"_**Sure, what can I do for you?" **_

_**I wanted to know her name, and as soon as she heard the question she giggled.**_

"_**It's nothing you have to think about, you know that right?" she said with an amused tone in her voice.**_

_**Yes I was well aware. But I knew that I was going to need her help again, whether it was to remind me of remaining a cold shell or to guide me, I had to know her name in order to be able to call for her.**_

_**She understood.**_

"_**Very well then, my name is Clarissa. But now I'm afraid I have to ship you to the next memory, ok?" **_

_**Clarissa, I had to remember her name for the next session, so that I could ask Dr Vidic to always give me her as my engineer in the future.**_

_**I knew that Clarissa had heard that, but I just fought the urge to smile and waited as she started to ship me to the next memory.**_

_**The morning after.**_

When Ofelia finally woke up and started stretching and yawning to wake up it felt as if I too had been asleep.

I rubbed my, her, eyelids and tried to make us both wake up, it was clear, judging by the sun shining in through Ofelia's window that it was time to get up and out before the priest arrived to the church.

Ofelia knew him, and even though he wasn't too pleased of her sleeping in his church he let her be if she was out of there when he arrived in the morning. Maybe it was because he cared for her just as he cared for every other human being, or maybe it was because she had threatened to cut his throat if he as much as tried to kick her out of there.

Either way, Ofelia felt that she owed him to do as he wished, at least to a certain point.

Suddenly Ofelia remembered her guest who had stayed for the night.

Quickly I sat up and tried blinking away the pain that the light caused to her eyes.

When my eyes had started to adjust I set my eyes on the carefully folded blankets lying on the floor where Ezio the last time I had seen him had been sleeping.

A sigh escaped my lips, so he had already left.

It was foolish of me to hope that he would change his mind … Ofelia sighed inside of my head.

From downstairs I could hear somebody walking around and I sighed once again.

The priest must have gone here early, he would not be pleased to see that Ofelia was still there.

I stood up from the bed and went over to the window, I pushed it open and the warm breeze brushed my cheeks as I inhaled the fresh air.

The archers were just about to be exchanged, a man down on the streets was bringing a ladder towards the wall to climb up and take over for his shift.

The blood red water that I had poured out of the window the night before was left as a spot on the ground underneath the window, but other than that there couldn't be much left as clues for the guards to find Ofelia's safe house, but with her courtesan clothing they might recognize her.

So visiting the brothel to get a new one was probably the most exciting thing to do this day, Ofelia feared.

"Oh well, Might as well get going." I sighed to myself as I went to fetch my clothing, still lying on the floor in a messy pile.

But as I was about to bend down to fetch it, something in the corner of my eye caught my attention.

Something shined in the sun, could it be one of Ofelia's throwing knives that had fallen from the table?

No. the sound of metal hitting the floor was something that I would have woken up to. But then again, I hadn't heard Ezio leaving in the morning, and he must have made quite a noise because of the armor.

But soon I understood that the shiny thing wasn't just a tiny little knife.

It was Ezio's complete armor, still lying in a pile on the floor.

Quickly I walked over to it and kicked it with my foot, as if I needed assurance that it was there.

I didn't understand, he couldn't have left without it yet still it was here and he was not.

Suddenly I felt the presence of somebody behind me, thinking that it was the priest who had come to disturb me I quickly dragged out one of the knives from the wall beside me and shot it through the air and towards where the priest stood without looking.

I heard the knife get stuck deep in the other tree wall, lucky him then.

I gritted my teeth's.

"I told you to never come up here, I will get out just give me a moment!" I spat and spun around, only to stand face to face with Ezio.

My mouth dropped, Ofelia was in shock and I was forcing myself not to make Ofelia's body do a happy dance.

He grinned shortly before nodding to me.

"Buongiorno to you too." He said, as if i hadn't just throwed a knife in his direction, which must've missed only by inches.

"I-i don't understand weren't you supposed to be leaving?" I stuttered. Ofelia wanted to slap herself for doing such a childish thing.

I myself wanted to smile like a maniac because of what this might mean.

"Yes I was, but then I got hungry and went to the market to buy fruit. And when I got back I get threatened to life because I was kind enough to get you something?" Ezio said theatrically as he opened a bag that he had brought with him, which looked like Ofelia's and probably was too. He threw an apple to me and I grabbed it out of pure reflexes.

Ofelia thought about the time back at the Rosa in Fiore where he couldn't wait until the next day before leaving Firenze, she thought that he was the kind of man who slept over and then left by dawn, leaving nothing behind.

"I-I thought you were the priest, coming up here and about to give me a speech if I didn't leave."

"Do you usually throw knives after a priest?"

I was silent a while.

"He's annoying me." I said finally, to which Ezio started to laugh.

Soon Ofelia was starting to wonder why he still was here, why he hadn't left while she still was asleep.

Could he have changed his mind?

Ezio started chewing on his own apple, he walked past me and towards the window where he sat down on the window frame in silence. He gazed out through the window as if he loved the view.

I chewed on the apple, thinking about why he was taking his time.

"I have to go visit the brothel today, Ezio. Aren't you going to tell your friend that your mission was successful?" I asked him, scratching the back of my neck.

"I believe he knows it already."

He didn't seem to want to leave the window, and since he wasn't moving Ofelia thought that she might as well get her job done, maybe he would be gone when she got back?

A big part of her didn't want to admit though that she wished that he would still be here.

I walked over to the ladder and was about to climb down, still in my father's old shirt and the pants, when Ezio's voice stopped me.

"Tomorrow morning you'll have to visit the nearest tailor, your clothes will have arrived by then." Ezio murmured, still looking through the window.

"What?" I asked confusedly.

He then turned to look at me.

"An apprentice must have the proper clothing." He said with a smile.

Ofelia was standing still while processing what Ezio had told her.

"Have you changed your mind? Will you be my teacher?" I asked, hope and happiness building up inside of both me and Ofelia.

This was it, she was going to reach her goal thanks to Ezio, and once again he would change her life!

"Do you still need one?" He asked with a smile.

"Yes!"

"Then yes I will."

"Grazie Ezio... I-it means so much for me." Ofelia was never the one to thank people, but this was something special and she felt that he needed to know that she wasn't taking it for granted.

"Nessun problema, we'll start at sunset." He said and took another bite of the apple.

"Sunset? Don't you mean sunrise?"

"No, sunset. Get ready, we will have to buy you new equipment before then. Even though i find it adorabile that you wear armor twice the size of yourself you'll have to wear something less conspiciously and more fitting, you'll have to be able to keep my pace."

My smile grew bigger as I took another bite of the apple and watched Ezio's back as he turned to face the outside again.

I won't disappoint him, this is my destiny. Ofelia's thoughts echoed inside of my head.

"Next memory, Melanie! It's about two weeks later in Ofelia's life."

As Clarissa spoke the last scene faded and I could all of a sudden feel warmth and exhaustion from the next memory, I had the feeling that I now was going to be able to see how the training was for a real assassin.


	17. Not As I Expected

My breath was caught somewhere in my exhausted lungs, my body shaking with the effort off running the whole day.

My hair was glued to my forehead if not in the messy braid.  
>It felt as if I was going to collapse until I understood that I was in Ofelia's body again, this time she was drained in sweat and her hands were stained with dust and dirt.<p>

_**If he wasn't my teacher I would have killed him by now.**_ Ofelia thought, followed by a long set of cursing.

I searched her memory about the past weeks, my mind quickly getting as exhausted as she was because of how my mind was linked to everything her body felt.

She had been training everyday with Ezio, but only four times had he actually joined her in training. Usually he just sat with his back against a wall or with his feet dangling over the edge of a rooftop depending on where they were training. And there he stayed while counting how many laps she ran or how much time it took for her to get from a certain point to another without touching ground.

At the moment he was standing leaned against a table where a woman was selling fruit, she hadn't minded him standing there for the last half an hour. Something that Ofelia clearly didn't like. Ezio was there to help her, not flirt with others!

And every time Ofelia came back the woman was standing closer and closer to Ezio which he didn't seem to mind.

Ofelia had been running two streets then over the Rialto Bridge, which was were Ezio stood, and back again. This was nothing alike the trainings that La Volpe and Paola had been giving Ofelia. And she was just about as disappointed as I was.

The sun was burning hot right above our heads and Ofelia's knees were shaking as she finally was by Ezio and got to breath for a moment before running back again.

People were stopping to look at me, Ofelia, as I collapsed on my knees, panting and shaking. As a matter of fact they had watched Ofelia as if she was mad for running during the hottest time of the day. She felt mad, too.

"I am finished, Ezio, I cannot run any further." I breathed.

It felt as if Ofelia wanted to cry of exhaustion, and I myself was starting to feel exactly like her, due to the connection my mind had to her body.

I tried to look at him but my neck hurt too much, it started shaking violently as I tried. Instead I watched my trembling hands in my lap and felt how a sweat drop trickled down the tip of my nose.

He had been pushing Ofelia to the limit since day one when it came to running or building up her strength, but she was already strong and fast enough and she didn't have to build it up.

She had to learn the ways that he worked on, how he made sure that his missions were completed without people noticing him. She needed to learn as much as possible before it was time to meet the others novices and train against them.

Ofelia thought of the meetings as nothing but an opportunity to show off and show the others which one of them all that was the greatest.

Ofelia loved competitions, as long as she knew that she would win.

But this time she was unsure. She had not been out and looking for contracts, no missions had been done. And although she was definitely stronger now , she doubted that she would be able to show the others that she had improved her skills.

A cloud of stress and exhaustion had been following wherever she went for the past week.

The meeting was only two weeks away now. And Ofelia felt that this time Paola wouldn't be satisfied with Ofelia's lack of signed contracts. Allthough, she thought with a smile, Paola wouldn't be so hard on Ofelia, when she saw who Ofelia had managed to find.

"How do you know before you have even tried?" Ezio said with gleeful voice, which stopped my search through Ofelia's thoughts. The woman beside him, or should I perhaps call her girl, giggled to this.

I and Ofelia both wanted to say something to the girl who clearly found Ezio good looking and charming and therefore was giggling to everything he said. Or perhaps saying nothing at all and simply kicking her off the bridge would be good enough.

I managed to between gritted teeth's say something really inappropriate and something extremely unlike Melanie but something that Ofelia could spit out without blushing. It was loud enough for them both to hear, Ezio only chuckled but I was satisfied that they bat least heard that I wasn't agreeing with them.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead and was finally getting my legs to function after ten minutes of shaking. Although they still were shaking pretty good.

With my hands gripping the table for support I managed to get myself up on my feet again, but knocking down a few apples on the way.

As I looked at the girl she was blushing, probably because of my words. But she didn't do anything to make me pick the fruit up again. Perhaps it was my mad eyes glaring at her, saying: I dare you.

_**I would have been scared of me if I was her, I can't imagine what I must look like.**_ Ofelia thought. At the moment she hated Ezio for letting her run in a crowd where everyone could see how sweaty and red she was, and with messy hair as well. But as a matter of fact, Ofelia hated everything about Ezio.

I looked down at what Ofelia had put on this morning, it was her father's shirt and the pants, I wondered where her apprentice clothing was but then realized that this was for when she had to train, and the other clothing was for when she was out on missions. Which, as I searched her memories, I found out she hadn't been out on yet.

I was starting to get mad as well.

"Ezio you have been forcing me to run and climb houses for two weeks of time now." I looked at the girl as if I suddenly remembered that she was listening to our conversation.

I motioned with my hand to make her understand that I wanted her away. She looked at me with confusion, still blushing.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" I spat, she started blushing even worse and tried answering.

But words never crossed her lips, only stuttered tones, before Ezio came to her rescue.

"Relax senorina Ofelia is just tired and hungry, she won't hurt you." He laid a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder and gave her a smile.

She looked up at his face showing how thankful she was that he was there for her.

I rolled my eyes before meeting Ezio's.

Ofelia knew exactly how he played, she knew exactly how he worked and what he was planning.

It even crossed her mind to tell the girl what he would do. How she should be thankful for how he was behaving now until she understood that he did it to every girl he met. How he seemed to be so charming and loveable and after he got what he wanted, a night in bed, he would disappear at dawn.

Ofelia knew this, because of how he had been treating girls before he met Cristina. Ezio had stayed true to one girl in his life, well at least as faithful as a man like him ever could, and that had been Cristina.

But then the thought of how he had stayed away from women, wine and work of his own. Of how he hadn't left her side for the past two weeks even for a minute, stopped Ofelia from saying something.

_**I should be thankful for how he has stopped his own life in order to help me, too bad though that being thankful isn't something that I am used to.**_ Ofelia thought, amused for only seconds before returning to being serious and frustrated.

"Who says I won't? If you stay here and continue with keeping Ezio from teaching me how to stay my blade from the flesh of innocent then maybe I will kill you." I gave her a vicious smile before glancing at Ezio. His jaws smacked together, his eyes trying to tell me to stop. The girl had seen Ofelia giving her hidden blade and throwing knives to Ezio before starting her running. She must have understood what Ofelia was capable of.

Her eyes grew bigger, looking from Ezio to me as if to see if he was going to stop me.

But Ezio just kept on looking at me, this was probably the first time that he looked serious and wasn't joking or teasing Ofelia since they met back at the castello.

The two of us had to admit, though neither of us wanted to _**ever**_ say it out loud, that Ezio was looking quite handsome when he stopped behaving like a child.

I starred at Ezio with a vague smile,

"No one is innocent, in my eyes; everyone has done something worth punishment." My eyes went to her again, she gasped almost unnoticeable.


	18. Memory

Lol you guys are lucky! I thought I wouldn't be able to use the internet since I'm going on vacation, but turns out I could use it for a while! So here's another piece, I hope it doesn't suck 2 much. Let me know! 

I turned my back against her before grabbing an apple from her table and taking a bite.

I grabbed a few coins from my pouch which I tossed over to her side of the table, she just starred at them.

Her shoulders were hanging low, her eyes locked to something in the distance behind me.

Suddenly her eyes started to water, her lower lip starting to tremble.

Ofelia panicked inside, I staggered back and away from the table. Ofelia hated to see people crying, it was their way of showing weakness.

And ever since her father died, her brother disappeared and the first days back at the Rosa in Fiore were over, Ofelia had never cried ever again. Weakness was something she hated.

Something she wished didn't exist. Something she had pretended not to exist in her life, up until this point.

It all took her back to when her brother disappeared. Back to that dreadful morning when she had seen him for the last time. She had only been eleven years old.

He had been thirteen years old, yet his eyes had a deepness that no one in his age had and his forehead always slightly wrinkled with concern for his family. She had thought of him as so much wiser and more mature than everyone else, even wiser than most adults that Ofelia had met. Suddenly a harsh rush of extreme sorrow hit Ofelia and I as memories of her beloved brother were brought back up to the surface.

Watching the girl crying reminded her of how heartbroken she had once been.

What had happened to her promises that she had given to her brother, that day he ran away? Ofelia wondered.

As I tried to open up her memories from the day her brother disappeared I once again met a wall, but this time there was a chance for me to reveal bits and pieces from what was hidden behind.

"_**Oh. Melanie, Ofelia is about to have a sort of a flashback. I've never witnessed this before but I've heard of others who have. According to my computer you can witness it but you won't be able to control her, just sit back and watch. I think it has to do with the fact that this was years back in time and you haven't been there yet, therefore her mind is still free of our control so to speak. But don't worry, I'll just fast forward you…." NO! I begged Clarissa.**_

_**I couldn't explain, or perhaps didn't want to admit it, but I wanted, needed, to know what Ofelia had lived through. I wanted to know as much as possible about Ofelia and her past, her future, her entire life. I needed to understand her, needed to **__**stay**__** here, pretending that I could help or be her for as long as possible. I had to admit, I was jealous of Ofelia, more jealous than I have ever been in my whole life ever before. I envied her strength, her beauty, her luck. **_

_**My life was meaningless back at Abstergo, my life there was nothing but an empty promise of becoming something great, of changing history and doing something great to the community by helping the Templars. Truth was that in my life I would do nothing but bad things, I wouldn't help anyone except for the ones with the power. The ones who didn't need nor disserved power.**_

_**Clarissa was listening the whole time while I was thinking of Abstergo, without saying a word.**_

_**Finally I had to ask her if I had told too much of my own personal point of view.**_

_**After all, if she didn't think like me, she could have me executed for what I was thinking.**_

_**My thoughts were being recorded, all she had to do was to go to Vidic and play it for him and my life would be over before I was even back from this session. **_

_**It was illegal for me to say something bad about Vidic, The Templars or Abstergo.**_

_**But Clarissa only sighed.**_

"_**I won't hand you over to Vidic, you're not a zombie for crying out loud! You have the abilities to feel and think however you pleas and I would never even dream of taking that away from you, although Vidic has told us engineers to inform him whenever you all start to think... Rebellion like. But I won't mention a word." **_

_**I was glad to hear that, thankful as a matter of fact. And even though I didn't know her and hadn't even seen her before this session, I somehow got the feeling that I could trust her.**_

_**It could have been her set of voice, that somehow tired tone that I couldn't help but to overhear even though she tried to hide it with a friendly tone?**_

_**Whatever it was that actually made me trust her, it didn't matter.**_

_**What mattered was that she would let me see the memories beyond Ofelia's protective wall.**_

_**Maybe I would understand a little why her brother had gone, and left Ofelia with the only option of becoming a courtesan in order to survive.**_

_**But then there was still that one question itching in the back of my head. Would Clarissa let me live as Ofelia to the fullest, without reminding me that I wasn't her?**_

"_**Do you want me to let you believe that you are Ofelia, even after the flashback?"**_

_**Yes, I thought to her while trying to keep Ofelia's heart from racing as I hoped for her to agree. **_

"_**Melanie that's extremely dangerous. Even if you would be able to remind yourself on your own were you are you'll eventually forget all about who you were before, Melanie. The reason why I'm constantly speaking to you is because without hearing my voice your mind will eventually cut out all your memories and experiences you've had up until this point!**_

_**Let me put it like this: you'll pretty much become the soap that holds Ofelia's mind bubble together!" **_

_**When she put it like that, using the metaphorical bubble I often used to try to understand my connection to Ofelia's mind, I simply wanted to laugh. **_

"_**Melanie I am serious! If this session is completed and you have forgotten all about your real life there is a 98.4 percent's chance that you'll go into shock or even die when being transported back!" Clarissa seemed stressed out and concerned, but when I asked if the numbers really were correct, she sighed as if I was hopeless to discuss with.**_

"_**Ok, so technically I just made that number up." Her voiced became serious." But with the already high risk of you not making it through and surviving the transmission out of this session with my help… I don't know I just don't want to be the one who killed you by letting you believe that you were someone you're not. "**_

_**Now I wanted to smile. She wanted to look after me, and that was something that people didn't usually want to do. Either they wanted to kill me or suffocate me by becoming friends with me, since I was the famous "child with a purpose".**_

_**It usually didn't work when people tried to become friends with me. Lionel and Susan, whose name I finally remembered, knew that. Susan had already witnessed a few times how people had tried to become my friend, and how I usually immediately pushed them away. **_

_**But this time Clarissa wasn't even trying to become my friend, she was just genuinely being a kind human being. And it made me like her.**_

_**But nevertheless, she was trying to stop me from doing what I wanted. And I was way too tired of people doing that to just ignore and let it be. **_

_**I told her how I had survived this long without the help of others while in an animus. How the engineers I had, up until this point, worked with had only told me when I was going to be shipped off to another memory. **_

_**I was positive that I would make it, and if she by any chance started to get really worried, then she could just speak to me again. Simple as that, I told her.**_

_**She was quiet for a while, probably thinking of the risks with what I begged her to do.**_

"_**Ok fine! But if there are any complications I'll scream at you right away!" She told me.**_

_**I wanted to, for some weird reason jump around and smile like crazy. But I couldn't, instead I showed her my gratitude. **_

_**I told her that when I was coming back from the session, I was going to give her a hug and a proper thank you in person. She laughed to this, as I told her that it was something I wasn't used to do.**_

"_**Well it's good that you're not thanking me now, because I'm seriously not sure if I'm doing you a favor or not. Well, we'll see." She said and exhaled shakily, and with that she shipped me to the memory.**_

_**Right away I knew that I was going to live through this one without being able to control her, only sit back and watch as Clarissa had said. **_


	19. Marco

_**Ok you guys, after the flashback I'm gonna need some help, I want ya all to tell me what you think should happen next. A mission perhaps? Or a meeting with one of Ofelia's old friends? You get to choose! Anyway I hope you like this, and FYI two more pages will come up shortly, either tomorrow or the day after that, pls let me know what you think so far **_

I woke up by the sound of someone opening the door to my room, slowly. Too slow for it to be mother, she didn't show any mercy when she woke me and my brother up at dawn anymore.

Not since father… I made a grimace of pain when i thought of father. The memories from the execution were still too fresh for me to even think his name. The pain was still too big for me to bear. I was still a child, at least until my mother thought me old enough to be married.

Footsteps, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the floor and someone cursing to himself made me wide awake.

Quickly I sat straight up in the bed, looking towards the door where I knew he was going to stand.

"Marco? What are you doing?" I hissed to my brother. He looked up with the facial expression of someone who had gotten caught doing something against the law. His eyes grew wide as he saw that I had woken up.

He bended down to pick up what had caused the loud noise, a hair brush that had slipped of the drawer next to the door. He put it back at its place again before walking over to the side of the bed that I was sitting at.

I tried to meet his eyes with my concerned ones, but he kept avoiding my stare. Instead his eyes were focused somewhere in the distance, and once again his forehead slightly wrinkled.

I believed that there was something bothering him.

But one thing I had learned about my brother, was that he disliked people who tried to hurry him to speak. He liked to think before speaking, and so I had to patiently wait until he decided to speak.

He sat down by my feet, hands in his lap and his head slightly bowed.

"Ofelia. You must not tell mother about this." He said with a voice so mature and serious that even i, who thought off him as the wisest brother in the world, became surprised.

"About what?" I asked, still trying to meet his eyes.

He inhaled. I started to worry that something terrible had happened. Or was going to happen.

And if so, I would break. No, correction; I wouldn't break, but our mother would. And then me and my brother would be left to pick up all the broken pieces while she sat by the fire all day, feeling sorry for herself. Sitting in father's favorite chair just like before. That was what she had done for weeks after the execution.

Now the fire never burned when she was in the same room, and the chair stood forever empty in my room. I still believed that if the chair was here, so would father be.

My brother finally looked up at me, and all of a sudden the wrinkle of concern was gone. In its place was determination. It lighted up his eyes, and gave him the strength to speak.

"I am leaving Firenze, Ofelia. Forever. Father wanted me, us, to accomplish something. Something you wouldn't understand. But in time I will be back to get you, and perhaps mother as well. And then all will be explained, I promise. But in the meantime, I need," He reached out and grabbed my hands and looked at me as if it was of highest importance that I remembered everything that passed his lips. "You to take care of mother, father's old belongings and yourself. Can you do that for me?"


	20. Marco pt 2

_**I love to hear that you guys like the story so far! **_

My lower lip started to tremble as I understood what it was that he was asking of me. What he was planning to do.

Whenever my brother saw me crying, he used to take me in his arms and hold me until I stopped or fell asleep. He had always cared of me, and had always showed me just how much. He never let me wander alone when it was too late, he couldn't even stand to see me without anything fun to do. But this new boy, man, grabbed my shoulders and shook me firmly.

"No, no. You mustn't cry Ofelia, do you understand? You cannot cry. It's in the past to cry. I need you to be the strong adult now, can you do that for me? Will you promise me to be strong and to never cry again?" His words tumbled out quickly but quietly as he shook me again.

But it only caused me to cry even more. What was this? Who was he? This wasn't my brother, he would never leave me. Not like this, especially not know when father left us not so long ago. The emptiness that father left behind, my brother had ever since tried to fill. He had tried to be a second father to me, just for as long as I needed to, in order to become a grown up.

But now, when he asked me so abruptly to do something, to never ever cry again and to take care of my own mother when it should be the other way around until I was of age, it was wrong. I was unprepared, and soon also going to be alone.

Tears started to stream down my cheeks and down upon the bed.

My brother tried hushing me and taking my face in his hands.

"Why are you leaving us?" I whispered as good as I could to him.

He seemed to feel guilt for a moment, but then the determination was back again.

"I have to, I will explain everything for you when I return, but for now you are better of unknowing. Father wanted it that way."

"Father?" I exclaimed, to witch Marco once again tried hushing me as he wiped my tears away with his thumbs. Gently, but still not the way he used to.

"Has father something to do with this? I don't understand!" I whispered, but Marco gave me a helpless stare before looking towards the door.

"I need you to keep quiet, you mustn't wake mother. She cannot know that I am leaving until I am far away from here. Do you understand?" He sounded as if we were running out of time, and before I knew it he let me go. My arms reached out to him but instead of hugging me he spun around and went as quickly as possible to the other side of the room.

He went over to father's chair, and before I even had time to understand what he was doing, he had dragged out a knife from his boot and was cutting it into the fine cotton and linen.

"No!" I howled as he destroyed the seat, pieces of it flying everywhere.

He hushed me again, this time more ill-tempered. His hand disappeared inside of the seat and searched before he found what he was looking for, he dragged out what seemed to be three envelopes.

He grabbed his bag that hung by his bedside and threw the letters inside of it alongside with the knife, some clothing and what seemed to me to be the pouch we used for money when going shopping.

When he was done he threw the bag over his shoulder and went for the door.

I quickly jumped out of the bed and grabbed his arm.

He was already two heads taller than me and really strong from carrying bags of food and such things to the store where he worked, and it took all the strength that I possessed to stop him from walking out the door.

"Marco, please don't leave me! I don't understand anything! Marco please, you must tell me where you're going!" I was crying uncontrollably now, and whispering all though I was quite sure that it was hearable from the other side of town.


	21. Marco pt 3

I'm sorry if there's actually anyone out there reading this story, but I've just felt like… like it SUCKS, so I haven't felt like writing on it. But anyways, here's a bit more and.. well just read and let's just pretend that it's epic…

Suddenly Marco wrapped his arms around me, and placed my head against his chest.

The smell of his shirts that I had grown to love so much wasn't comforting anymore. It only made me think of how much I would miss him if he left. Even the most ordinary things as working together, eating dinner together and just talking. I would miss it all. I would miss his, smile, his face, his way of speaking like he was from a different time. Everything.

With his hand he stroked my hair, trying to calm me down. But inside I was fighting against the scream of panic and pain that was building up inside of me. Too much things had happened to me in such short time, too much pain that had caused me to become weak. I wouldn't survive without him, not a day.

I was holding as tight of a grip as I could of his back, digging my nails into the fabric of his shirt.

"Perdonami Sorella. (no idea if that's right, but lets hope so) I hope that one day, we'll meet again. Then and only then will i tell you about the true reasons for our father's execution, and for why i am leaving, but Ofelia you're still too young to know." He whispered to me.

"Then stay until i get older." I begged him, he chuckled quietly but without being amused and kept on stroking my hair.

"I whish i could, but i can't. I need to go, and you need to stay here until mother can survive alone again. Please be patient with her, she doesn't know how to handle this."

"But I won't know either." I whispered.

"Yes you will, in time. In time you will learn how to be a grown up and you will work it out just fine. Trust me. But in order to make it, you have to learn how tears won't solve anything."

"Crying is the only way I know off to make you see how much I will miss you." I said.

I could feel how he shook his head.

"No Ofelia. To cry is to show weakness. Crying is the human way of showing how vulnerable you really are. As your brother I comfort you when you cry, but as your enemy; I would only feel joy for your misery. In life you'll learn how people will always try to seek ways of taking advantages over you, promise me to never let them." He said.

"These are promises that will be hard for me to keep, Marco. First you ask me not to cry ever again, and now to never stand in another woman's or a man's shadow? I am only a child." I whispered and looked up at his face.

The same brown eyes that our father once had met mine. He tried to smile but when he saw how devastated I was he sighed, as if to see me hurt made him feel pain.

"In time you'll learn, in time you will be able to keep these promises. Or so I do at least hope."  
>He brushed his hand over my cheeks once again to wipe away the final tears.<p>

No more tears were overflowing my eyes. It felt as if I had dried out, as if I had cried enough to last a whole life time. Maybe that promise wouldn't be so hard to keep then, I thought to myself dryly.

He gave me a last look, before grabbing my arms and trying to push me off. "Now, let me go, i have to leave."

Panic strucked me as I understood that my tears as well as the begging for him to stay wasn't enough. I tried to hold on to him but he was stronger than me and pushed me away without effort.

I kept whispering: "No! Marco please stay! We need you!" And "I won't survive on my own!" But he ignored me. And when he went through the door he shut it firmly before locking it with the only key.

"I'll leave the key, mother will see it and let you out when she comes to wake you up. Take care, Ofelia." And with those final words, he left.

The panic I had felt suddenly disappeared, as if the stream of so many different emotions in such short time was too much for me to handle. Instead I felt drained and tired.

I rested my forehead against the door, while gazing down at my feet.

I wanted to slam my fists against the door, to scream and to break things. But I couldn't. I didn't have the strength in me. Because somehow, no matter how possibly in chock, destroyed and depressed I felt. I still couldn't bring myself to wake up mother and make her catch Marco before he disappeared. Somehow I felt, knew, that Marco had to do what our father had wanted. If it even was something that father had told him to do. I didn't know what it was and didn't know if it was true, and probably wouldn't find out, until the day of Marco's return.

And until then, I could only do what he asked me to do.

To take care of my mother and myself. He was right though. I thought as I heard the front door close behind him and slowly went to the window to watch him leave. I was never going to cry again. Even if it took all the strength that I would ever possess, I would never cry again. Father always told us how strength was important, and that we would learn just how important when we became of age. And now that brother had told me that as well, I believed that now I was old enough to start learning exactly how important.

Father had been a man of strength, kindness and honor. Marco had always tried to be as him and had succeeded, at least until now.

Marco started walking down the street, to a destination that to me was unknown.

I didn't know what to think of him, now that he left me and mother on our own, which was something far from anything that father, would have done.

But I simply had to have faith in brother, to have faith that he one day would return and take care of me again. By then, I would really disserve being taken care of. Because I knew how tough my life would become now. Without a father or a brother, and since Marco had left with the money we didn't even have that to support us with. I had seen families fall apart when the father died. The father and the brothers in a family were supposed to support the mother and the daughters with money, without them they were lost without hope.

But I would fight. Fight for father, for brother. For myself.

I will fight Marco, even though you have left me I will keep on going to make you and father pride. I thought as he disappeared in the distance.


End file.
